EDITORIAL | The Trump-Infantino axis of self-serving machination

With his characteristic habit of wading into things he knows nothing about, US President Donald Trump has brought his own brand of noxious ignorance to the world’s most popular sport, football. In doing so, he has cast a cloud over the Fifa World Cup being played in the US, Canada and Mexico, and raised uncomfortable questions about political interference in the game under Fifa and its president, the Swiss lawyer Gianni Infantino.

Trump has not attended a single World Cup game and was not there when the US were soundly beaten by Belgium in the second round of knockout matches. Among the US players on the pitch was the country’s top-scoring forward, Folarin Balogun. He shouldn’t have been there. Red-carded for a foul tackle in a qualifying game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Balogun was set to miss the next match as per Fifa rules.

Then Trump, in his bragging and obnoxious way, let slip that he had spoken to Infantino about the red card and expressed his unhappiness. There the matter should have rested, except that Fifa’s disciplinary structures, in an unprecedented move, gave Balogun a reprieve under an obscure provision known as article 27. It has never happened before.

Predictably, Belgium objected, and so too did the sport’s governing body in Europe, Uefa. Respected coaches weighed in, as did Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor, all of them intoning darkly about the damage done to the game and its integrity. The political interference that Fifa claims is anathema to fairplay was obvious. But not to Trump, and not to Infantino, who said: “That’s how the Fifa system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.”

By insisting that Fifa’s disciplinary committee took the decision, it will be hard, if not impossible, to prove political interference, even with Trump’s admission that he spoke to Infantino. “I think it [the suspension] would have left a big stain,” Trump said. The affair has indeed left a big stain, but of a different sort.

With eye-watering revenues under his control, it is little wonder Infantino regards himself as untouchable

But don’t expect football administrators around the world to be clamouring for justice. After cleaning up the blatant and provable corruption that took place under Blatter, with 40 arrests around the world, Infantino has turned Fifa into the most lucrative sports-control body in the world, with this edition of the World Cup bringing in some $13bn (about R215bn) as sponsorships and broadcast rights revenue have soared. Under Infantino, $2.7bn is distributed to 211 member football associations around the world.

With eye-watering revenues under his control, it is little wonder Infantino regards himself as untouchable, on a par with heads of state, and is aiming for a third term, having changed the constitution to allow for re-election. Members of the European parliament have started a campaign to have him removed, arguing: “Once again we have seen Infantino and Fifa surrender to the demands of the Trump administration.”

This was a reference to the bizarre “peace prize” he awarded Trump on behalf of Fifa at the World Cup draw last year. And Infantino has raised not a peep about the appalling treatment meted out to the Iranian football team or the blocking of Somali referee Omar Artan from the US, about which Infantino commented: “Chill, relax.”

Ideally, sport should be insulated from politics, the one area of life where honesty and decency reign. But given the absurd amounts of money at play, don’t expect those who benefit most from Infantino’s corrupt and self-serving administration to put up much resistance.

Trump’s habit of barging in where angels fear to tread is now legendary, an affront to us all. But he’ll get away with it, and as football goes from strength to strength, pulling in billions of dollars, expect Infantino to get away with it as well. No country’s government is going to deny its people football at the top level if that means going against the powers that be at Fifa.