United States President Donald Trump has placed as adornment behind the chair where he sits at the Oval Hall, where he signs and dispatches Decrees, the cup that will be delivered to the FIFA Club World Cup winner (International Football Federation). The event will be hosted this year in the United States, which will also host the World Cup in 2026.
The trophy was delivered and left temporarily there by the president of the entity, Gianni Infantino, on a visit to the White House in March this year. It symbolizes not only the relevance that Trump is giving the event but the good relationship with the leader, nourished since his first term (2017-2021).
The World Cup will be headquartered in conjunction with Canada and Mexico, ancient allies with whom Trump has crashed clashes. The US president, however, has used proximity to Infantino to show power over neighbors and exalt himself as the leader of the three in conducting the sporting event. He has the backing of the president of FIFA, who makes a point of culminating him.
The meeting at the White House was one of at least six occasions when they were together this year. The most recent was during the first international trip since taking office, to Saudi Arabia.
Infantino accompanied Trump in meetings with authorities in Saudi Arabia and also attended a ceremony at Qatar – where the 2022 World Cup took place, which represented the symbolic transfer of the championship headquarters from Tuesday (13) and Wednesday (14). There were no representatives from Canada and Mexico at the scene.
This trip led Infantino to delay FIFA’s annual meeting, initially scheduled for Tuesday. According to The Athetic, he first changed the date and then asked the main meeting to start hours after the expected due to his return from the Middle East. According to the newspaper, eight members of the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) that are part of the FIFA Council left the meeting contradicted with the president’s stance.
The relationship has received criticism of what is seen as a risk to FIFA’s political independence, while Trump takes advantage of projection around a sport acclaimed around the world.
“Last -minute changes at FIFA Congress are deeply unfortunate. Changing programming suddenly, apparently just to accommodate private political interests, does not provide any service to football and seems to put the interests of sports in the background,” Uefa said in a statement.
Before that, Infantino and Trump reinforced their ties this year in other meetings. On January 17, the leader went to the Republican house in Mar-a-lago to talk about this year’s Club World Cup organization and the World Cup.
On the 19th of that month, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the president of FIFA went to the Republican victory rally, who cited him nominally and thanked him for his presence. “Well, this is the FIFA at most of you respect; to be mentioned by the new president of the United States of America in his victory rally, in his victory speech, is something unique, it’s beautiful,” infantin replied at the time.
Then, the president of FIFA joined the select group of authorities who went to the Capitol to honor the inauguration ceremony of the Republican’s mandate. Trump decided to make his possession in a closed place due to time and, therefore, had to restrict the guest list to the event.
In March, Trump received Infantino at the White House and created a task force to assist in the 2026 World Cup planning. On the visit, Infantino recalled that the United States will host the Club World Cup, starting in June. The games will take place in 11 cities, with a total prize of $ 1 billion (R $ 5.8 billion in the current quotation) intended for teams.
“America will welcome the world. There will be millions of people coming, Mills, millions of people,” said Gianni on the World Cup, highlighting the economic impact of the event. Already Trump praised the impact of the two tournaments.
On the 6th, the two were together for the first meeting of the World Cup task force. On the same day, Trump had received Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney, and stressed his desire to attach Canada, which he has referred to as “51st American state.” The premie has responded, saying that the nation is not for sale. Trump has denied that there are tensions with Canada and Mexico and that will disturb the organization of the World Cup.
Trump and Infantine’s relationship dates back to the Republican’s first term between 2017 and 2021.
The partnership began to consolidate in 2018, when the United States disputed with Morocco the right to host the 2026 World Cup. Trump was directly involved in the US candidacy campaign-which also included Canada and Mexico-and published veiled threats to countries that did not support the proposal.
The stance received criticism, but not from Infantino, sworn in president of FIFA in 2016. After the US victory, Infantino was received by Trump at the White House, in the Oval Room, on a visit read as mutual support gesture.
Then, in January 2020, Infantino participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which preceded a dinner offered by Trump to international leaders and investors.
In September of that year, Infantino went to Dubai at the time the agreement of Abraham was announced – the landmark of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The negotiation was intermediated by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Trump, and indicated an alignment of the sports leader with US politics.
