Money, politics, and the ‘beautiful game’: FIFA battles to win back trust
Christian Science Monitor · C · trust 46/100
| Eric Gay/AP FIFA President Gianni Infantino is seen prior to the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Spain in Arlington, Texas, July 14, 2026. Loading...
Americans know it as soccer. For hundreds of millions of people across the globe, it’s football. And it’s more than that. It’s what Brazilian superstar Pelé famously called “the beautiful game.”
But now, the beautiful game is mired in an ugly battle involving big money and power politics. Just over two weeks after this year’s World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the international football supremo who stood alongside President Donald Trump at the award ceremony is fighting to keep his job.
At the heart of the issue is accountability and keeping in check powerful organizations, in a sport that’s estimated to have 5 billion fans worldwide, according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body.
Less than three weeks after soccer’s World Cup final, dissent has broken out about the future direction of the game. The world governing body, FIFA, is trying to win back trust after its plan to sell off a stake in competitions to private investors was rejected.
Gianni Infantino has been president of FIFA since 2016. But a series of controversial decisions have led to calls for the Swiss administrator to be replaced.
His scant hopes of winning over his most determined foes – the footballing powerhouses of Europe – aren’t being helped by their anger over his cozying up to Mr. Trump before and throughout the 2026 World Cup.
His awarding of an international football “Peace Prize” to the president at the tournament draw, for instance. Or the cancellation of a red card for American star Folarin Balogun following a call from Mr. Trump.
But the immediate catalyst for calls to replace Mr. Infantino was the disclosure by British newspapers last week of his plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup and other major competitions to private investors.
Venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, the brother of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner, was reportedly due to lead the investor group.
Hannah Mckay/Reuters/File President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino hand the World Cup trophy to Spain's Rodri at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, July 19, 2026. Within hours, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), European football’s governing body, hit back. “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade, especially with zero transparency,” it said. “None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Then, UEFA’s 55 national associations, from across Europe, acted. In an emergency consultation, they voted unanimously to boycott all FIFA competitions until the plan was shelved.
That left Mr. Infantino with the task of getting investors to buy into World Cups without top football nations, including Spain, who had just won the competition. Of the 23 World Cups since 1930, more than half have been won by European teams, the rest by South American nations.
The FIFA boss had reacted to the initial fallout by standing firm, signaling a determination to move ahead with the plan within weeks.
But just hours after the boycott threat he said: “The proposal will not proceed.”
Still, the showdown over the past few days was the culmination of years of simmering tension between Europe’s football nations and the FIFA chief.
That’s been in part because of the Europeans’ discomfort with what they see as his ambition to exercise his personal writ over the game, almost like a head of state.
Paul Childs/Reuters Fans display a banner of FIFA President Gianni Infantino before the match at Boston Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, July 9, 2026. The FIFA leader has been pushing for changes to the World Cup, intent on bringing prominence to regions beyond Europe and South America. This year’s tournament had an expanded lineup of 48 nations, up from 32 four years earlier, including tiny newcomers like Cape Verde. Within days of the final, he said he was looking into adding a further 16 countries in time for the 2030 tournament – to be hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.
His private capital plan, he insisted, would have brought millions of additional dollars into less well-funded federations outside the established football nations.
If he can weather the immediate storm from the events of the past week, he may still be able to rely on getting sufficient backing from these smaller, historically less important, players among FIFA’s 211 national associations to win election for another four-year term next March.
Yet it’s not only Europe that was blindsided – and angered – by the private investment plan. Regional football federations in both Asia and North America also came out in opposition. And even his inner circle broke ranks. Carlos Cordeiro, a former U.S. soccer administrator and an Infantino aide during the World Cup, resigned in protest. The chief operating officer said he and FIFA staff had been “deceived.”
Mr. Infantino’s deputy, Secretary-General Mattias Grafström, described the plan as a “sad and reproachable series of events.” And Arsène Wenger, the former manager of the British football team Arsenal, who was brought in as FIFA’s head of global football development, said shelving the investment idea was “absolutely necessary and beyond question.”
Both men are reportedly among the FIFA staff that Mr. Infantino is meeting with this week in an effort to repair the damage. This includes convincing doubters that, as he said in abandoning the plan, his “purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve” football.
But the Europeans have insisted that he should either resign or be replaced.
Pelé, who passed away in 2022, still holds a basketful of World Cup records: He won three trophies, he remains the youngest player to win a cup, the youngest to score a hat trick there, and the youngest to score in a World Cup final.
He did make an appearance of…
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