FIFA president Gianni Infantino issued a typically blase reply in response to questions about the suitability of the United States being a host nation: ‘Chill’. Alright then.
He had been asked specifically about Somali referee Omar Artan not being allowed entry to the US due to a travel ban, but his comments also came against a wider backdrop of concerns over ticket and transport costs, the potential threat posed by ICE officers, the USA-Iran war, gun violence near the England camp, and much more.
‘It’s not easy when you have 300,000 accredited people, majority of which from outside of the US, to process them to vet them, you don’t know,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately, our world is a very aggressive world and security goes above everything and you need to respect the decisions which are taken and when I say to chill, I don’t mean to chill and do nothing.
‘I mean to trust us, that we are working behind the scenes, we are trying to understand and there are things we can know, things we cannot know, things we are told, not told.
‘We always try to make the situation as positive as possible and to find solutions. Sometimes we manage, other times not.’
