The date was March 20, 2025, and a gilded ensemble had convened at a beautiful spot in southern Greece. Against the backdrop of the Ionian Sea, one of the many mysteries of Gianni Infantino was about to play out.
His reason for being at the Costa Navarino resort was a task of some importance. Same went for the rest of the group – an assortment of royals, heads of state and sporting powerbrokers known collectively as the membership of the International Olympic Committee.
As president of football’s global governing body, Infantino was part of their gang. And that was a big deal on this particular Thursday, because they were in town to elect the movement’s next leader. Seven candidates were in the running, 97 votes would be cast, and the finer detail of who ticked which box is usually lost to secrecy.
But whispers can carry on a sea breeze.
According to three prominent sources contacted by Daily Mail Sport, the shared wisdom was that FIFA’s supreme ruler sided with the Spanish candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. Evidently, Samaranch Jr’s team felt pretty sure of it.
But therein lies the intrigue, because we have also been told that figures close to a rival candidate, Lord Sebastian Coe, heard a different song in Greece. Apparently, they were given reason to believe Infantino’s vote would be his.
Gianni Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and will stand for re-election next year
The Swiss has been instrumental in the bloating of the World Cup from 32 nations to 48
As it transpired, neither man won, but here’s the thing: 15 months on, the two parties are still said to trust that Infantino went their way.
FIFA did not respond to Daily Mail Sport’s request for a little clarity, so what are we to do with this vignette? Is it par for the famously opaque course of sporting politics, or indicative of the confusion that forever surrounds Infantino? It’s just one thought to consider as we approach the strangest, most politicised World Cup in recent memory and find ourselves studying the many faces of the man behind it.
Because who and what is Gianni Infantino?
Four years have passed since he took to a stage at the Qatar World Cup and offered his own answer. Addressing his audience that day, he said: ‘Today, I feel Qatari. Today, I feel gay. Today, I feel disabled. Today, I feel like a migrant worker…’
Prior to this World Cup, the portrait is somehow more surreal.
Today, it can be tempting to wonder if there is a world leader Infantino wouldn’t feel for a buck.
Today, it can feel as though Infantino has bucked football senseless.
Today, it feels prudent to query if football is safe in his hands.
It was February 26, 2016, when Infantino was elected to clean the wreckage left by the institutional corruption found beneath his predecessor, Sepp Blatter
Infantino has hungered for the limelight unlike any sporting administrator in recent memory. To look at one of his most contentious creations, the Club World Cup, is to see his name engraved into the trophy. Twice
From presidents and sheikhs to Salt Bae, carver of steaks – the cast of individuals embraced by Infantino and presented to his four million Instagram followers is broad. But he wasn’t always so ostentatious.
It was February 26, 2016, when Infantino was elected to clean the wreckage left by the institutional corruption found beneath his predecessor, Sepp Blatter. Back then, the new guy he was largely anonymous to the outside world.
The Swiss-born son of working-class Italians and a lawyer by trade, Infantino had been the accidental candidate. He had risen across the course of 16 years to the rank of UEFA’s general secretary, but FIFA’s top job was seemingly ordained for his boss, Michel Platini.
It was only after Platini was sucked into the same investigations as Blatter that a door opened for Infantino. ‘I had dinner with Platini the week before the whole thing blew up, and he genuinely thought he was there,’ says Greg Dyke, who was the FA chairman during the Blatter demise and for the first few months of Infantino.
‘I don’t quite know where the idea came from for Infantino to run, but my first impressions were that I liked him. He was a guy you could sit down with and have a chat. I never thought he was particularly political and thought he would bring a positive change.’
Dyke’s FA were among those to vote for him.
Patrick Nally’s instincts were similar to Dyke’s and date back further. Renowned as the founding father of modern sports marketing, the Englishman, 79, was one of the foremost king-makers behind Blatter’s rise at FIFA in the 1990s and he remains connected to the lever-pullers of elite sport. He first met Infantino in 2010 and found him ‘pleasant and unassuming’. He adds: ‘He didn’t strike me as an incredibly political or ambitious individual, which clearly he seems to have become.’
That understatement only skims over the changes we have witnessed across Infantino’s decade on the throne. Neither his personality nor his alterations to the very fabric of football point to a leader who dwells long on where to impose his limits.
The FIFA president drew criticism for posing for selfies close to Pele’s coffin in 2023
Infantino sends birthday messages to Cristiano Ronaldo which hint at his obsession with celebrity
The question is: how closely are the two factors linked? And from there, how worried should we be?
We’ll stick with the personality traits for now, because Infantino has hungered for the limelight unlike any sporting administrator in recent memory. To look at one of his most contentious creations, the Club World Cup, is to see his name engraved into trophy. Twice.
Birthday messages to Cristiano Ronaldo sit at a trivial end of this discussion about celebrity obsession but posing for selfies close to Pele’s coffin in 2023 drew greater flak. Caught somewhere between pragmatism and fawning, Infantino’s relationships with autocratic rulers is where the chat becomes more germane to what football has become on his watch.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the ongoing grins of fealty to Donald Trump are an echo of what has gone before with Vladimir Putin and the ruling family of Qatar, but, like so much else, it has grown more extreme with each World Cup cycle.
To the riposte of whether such endorsements matter, some would suggest the migrant workers who built Qatari stadiums are best qualified to answer; or those elements of the Iranian football delegation reportedly denied visas to the United States this month.
When Infantino wore a red Trump hat at the US President’s Board of Peace meeting in February, the optics were so jarring the IOC investigated a potential breach of their principles around political neutrality. As a member of the IOC, he might have been expected to play closer attention to their sensitivities – the Winter Olympics were in progress at that very moment. Infantino was cleared, but IOC president Kirsty Coventry was unimpressed. A seasoned Olympics source tells us their relationship is ‘not close’.
A kind interpretation would argue occasional clumsiness on Infantino’s part. But is it something else? Has it morphed closer to grandiosity and delusion?
Let’s review what played out at FIFA’s congress in Vancouver in April. Having already requested – and been denied – a motorcade beyond the privileges of the Canadian prime minister, Infantino attempted to coax a handshake on stage between senior executives of the Israeli and Palestinian football associations. Predictably, they refused and Palestinian FA president Jibril Rajoub walked away in audible displeasure from an excruciating scene.
When Infantino wore a red Trump hat at the US President’s Board of Peace meeting in February, the optics were so jarring the IOC investigated a potential breach of their principles around political neutrality
Infantino cosied up to the ruling family of Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup
‘To me, it looks like a muppet show,’ says the former Tottenham defender Ramon Vega, who initially campaigned for the FIFA post after Blatter’s demise. ‘What we saw in Vancouver and that embarrassing situation around Israel and Palestine, showed me a man with zero empathy and a superiority complex that degraded the position of FIFA president.’
It might be academic to ponder why Infantino craves the spotlight. But it would also be naive to assume power has no impact on those who wield it, especially if we rewind to the environment Infantino entered in 2016. Having inherited the political gold dust of a disgraced predecessor, Infantino was almost lionised as the reformist football needed. From there, the scope to become intoxicated is self-evident.
In Nally’s mind, a key transition point will have been the World Cup in Russia in 2018, which Infantino inherited from the previous regime and placed him in proximity to Putin. What follows is a compelling theory.
‘All I can say is that power goes to one’s head,’ Nally says. ‘I think Russia showed him just how powerful a position that he was in. The fact he was given one of the highest awards he could be given by Russia (the Order of Friendship Medal, patted onto his chest by Putin in 2019), and the realisation of what he had become, the penny dropped quite quickly.
‘Look at Qatar. This brought Infantino into complete contact with the most powerful families in Qatar. And then through Qatar into Saudi Arabia. He’s allowed his personality and ego to suddenly think he is another leader of the world. He will see himself as being equal to a Trump. He will see himself as being equal to a Putin. In other words, it’s difficult when you’re being feted by these individuals for it to not have an influence. Some individuals forget the reality.’
Two things to note on the conversation with Nally. One is to declare is he remains in contact with Blatter, whose distaste for his successor was made clear by other sources used in this report.
The other is that he was speaking to Daily Mail Sport before that botched handshake in Vancouver – an episode that might lend some prescience to his speculation.
‘There is no humility there at all,’ Nally adds.
The peace prize conceived and handed to Trump is a natural bookend to this chapter. Infantino could not have forecast the invasion of Iran three months later, pitting his World Cup host against a participant, but the very belief that such a prize was his to gift will surely feature in his final legacy at FIFA.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin awards an Order of Friendship to Infantino during a ceremony to present state decorations at the Moscow Kremlin in 2019
Donald Trump is presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize by Infantino late last year
There is a relevance to the conversation about ego, mainly for the way in which one explosion has been mirrored by others more fundamental to football. So much of the game has swelled on Infantino’s watch – a bigger World Cup, a bigger Club World Cup, bigger ticket prices, bigger demands on tired players, bigger takings.
We can talk at length about the other sliding-door moments of Infantino’s election win – for one, Dyke reaffirmed to us Platini was opposed to VAR – but the adaptations and the World Cup expansion from 32 nations to 48 have manifestly altered a crown jewel of sport. The qualification process and group-stages of the tournament are plainly diminished for it.
‘The expansion will dilute the quality of play,’ says Vega, capped 23 times by Switzerland. ‘This could cause massive player burnout and concerns over the welfare of the athletes.’
Few beyond those 48 nations, or entities that stand to profit from 40 extra games, have spoken in favour. Ditto the Club World Cup, which prompted the threat of strikes from players. And yet the sprawl will continue. The 2030 World Cup will be spread around Africa, Europe and South America, with guaranteed qualification for no fewer than six host nations.
A saving grace is that FIFA officials insist it is highly unlikely the tournament will swell to 64 nations, despite Infantino saying ‘every idea is a good idea’ when the thought was floated in 2025. It remains to be seen if he realises his wish of jamming in a Club World Cup every two years.
Time will tell on the wisdom of 2030 and possibly the motivation behind it. As a manoeuvre, this messy concoction opened a convenient path for an Asia host to jump a queue of continents in 2034. That being Saudi Arabia, of course. Accusations of sportswashing and profit before sense have already recommenced on that front, but multi-faceted issues in the US are the matter at hand.
The immense backlash against FIFA’s ticket prices this summer stands as the preeminent challenge to Infantino’s view of every idea being a good one.
‘He (Infantino) has changed the game for the worse,’ says Vega. ‘He completely lost touch with reality, prioritising financial revenue. Real fans cannot afford to go to the World Cup.’
‘He (Infantino) has changed the game for the worse,’ says Ramon Vega, the former Spurs player who initially campaigned for the FIFA post after Blatter’s demise. ‘He completely lost touch with reality’
Infantino with Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira at a World Cup event
Other major issues sit not far beneath the surface of the approaching jamboree, and as ever will be largely forgotten once balls are kicked.
‘As the World Cup looms, it wouldn’t pass any human rights smell test,’ says Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. ‘FIFA have been unable to secure a guarantee that armed ICE enforcement officials aren’t greeting the millions of fans here.’
Worden has offered scathing views previously in these pages about what happened in Qatar and, now, she fears for US-based Haitian supporters attending the June 13 match against Scotland. Her worry is that ICE agents might scoop them up. FIFA did not respond to a request for comment on that one.
Worden is among the many to have noticed a change in Infantino. On June 20, 2016, she visited him at FIFA HQ in Zurich. ‘He kept a promise to meet in his first 100 days,’ she says. ‘But the evolution in 10 years shows there’s clearly no value system that says he has to do that anymore.’
Human Rights Watch lost patience two years ago when Saudi Arabia emerged unopposed from a curiously truncated bidding process to land the World Cup. They cut ties.
Worden’s assessment of Infantino’s tenure concludes with a reference to what played out in Vancouver. ‘The Pope isn’t asking for treatment like this so where would he have gotten the idea that he deserves it?’ she asks. ‘This is delusional dictator behaviour.’
Vega used the very same description before adding: ‘He is only serving his own ego.’
As criticisms, they are withering. But those with voting rights show no sign of joining a chorus – Infantino was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023 and has been cleared to stand again in 2027 because his first term fell short of the full four years. He will almost certainly win.
Infantino is front and centre again as a bisht is put on Lionel Messi by Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in 2022
Other than the Norwegian FA, who called out the peace prize saga, there are no vocal dissidents among FIFA’s 211 member nations. The development allowances handed their way have grown eight-fold in Infantino’s tenure and whatever private discontent exists, it has never spread to the ballot papers.
Because whatever else has been observed during Infantino’s time, there has not been a corruption scandal. And financially, the game is thriving – FIFA’s accounts a decade ago showed an annual revenue of $502million and in 2025 that was up to $2.66billion. In this World Cup year, the projections suggest $9bn. Everything has bloated in tandem.
Today, Infantino will feel good about that. Today, we might be entitled to feel the worst of the ‘good ideas’ was to think he was ever the solution.
