When US President Donald Trump greeted dignitaries and business leaders on Tuesday (13) during his state visit to Saudi Arabia, he was received by a very familiar face: Gianni Infantino, President FIFA (International Federation of Football), who has been a loyal supporter since the Republican’s first term.
The close relationship between Trump and Infantino, an Italian-Swiss administrator, has raised eyebrows in football circles and others for years. Friendship seems to go beyond that among a leader of a World Cup host nation – the United States will host the next edition with Mexico and Canada – and the chief global football.
On Wednesday (14), Infantino will join Trump in the second stage of his presidential tour by the Persian Gulf States in Qatar, the thumb peninsula bordering the Saudi Arabia and hosted the World Cup in 2022.
FIFA’s agent is expected to preside a ceremony in which Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, will deliver the responsibilities of hosting the Trump World Cup.
The presence of representatives from Canada and Mexico is not expected. At the White House last week, Trump, whose tariffs increased tensions with the two US neighbors, joked that Infantino had correctly minimized their roles in the World Cup.
The trips of Infantino with Trump this week surprised the members of FIFA, who gathered thousands of kilometers away in Paraguay for the annual congress of the organization. An entity’s board meeting in Paraguay, which had been scheduled for this week, was quickly transferred to a video conferencing so that Infantino could travel with the US delegation to the Persian Gulf.
“The FIFA president has accepted invitations to participate in a series of important events with world leaders, where World Cups will also be discussed,” the entity told a statement. Infantino is now scheduled to travel to Paraguay to host Congress on Thursday (15), which was postponed in one hour to accommodate the changes.
Infantino also forged his own narrow ties with the Persian Gulf since taking office, wrapped in scandals in 2016. Although he promised to clean the organization, his mandate led even more scrutiny about how the football organ drives his business, especially after changing its rules last year to allow the Saudi Arabia, an important financial sponsor, to receive the World Cup rights to host the World Cup rights. 2034.
The ceremony at Qatar is in accordance with how Infantino has focused on Trump as a next year’s tournament pillar. It would not be the first time he put the president at the center of attention.
In 2020, Infantino served as a kind of warming act for a dinner that Trump organized during his first term at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, later that year, when Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to normalize relations, an agreement brokered by Jared Kushner, son -in -law of Trump.
Last year, Infantine in charge of Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump of participating in the draw for a new club tournament, the Club World Cup, which will be played for the first time this summer in the United States.
Infantino was on stage for Donald Trump’s inauguration in January and temporarily handed over the Golden Trophy of the Club World Cup to the White House, where he has been on display next to the Resolution Office.
