‘fifa Is A Dictatorship’: A Former Fifa President Lashes Out At His Successor’s Trump Ties

On May 27, 2015, plainclothes Swiss police working at the behest of the FBI entered a Zurich luxury hotel and walked out with some of the most powerful people in global soccer. Subsequent indictments by the U.S. Justice Department, built off a multi-year FBI investigation of corruption in soccer, led within months to the downfall of FIFA President Sepp Blatter after 17 years in the post.

Now 89 and suspended by FIFA from official soccer, Blatter has emerged in a new role: as a gadfly critic of his successor, Gianni Infantino, who has assiduously courted President Donald Trump ahead of the first World Cup that will be spread across three countries. Last week Infantino participated in the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace while wearing a red USA baseball cap, not long after awarding Trump a specially invented FIFA Peace Prize — activities that Infantino’s opponents both inside and outside FIFA say violate the organization’s rules about political neutrality. (The International Olympic Committee, of which Infantino is a member, has cleared him of wrongdoing.)

The Swiss-born Blatter, who wasacquitted of fraud charges in a ruling upheld last year by a Swiss court, spoke recently to the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, to which POLITICO belongs.

How would you describe Infantino’s leadership style as FIFA president?

He rules like a Sun King. I have heard from inside FIFA that he does not want to be greeted when he appears at FIFA headquarters — which is rarely the case — because someone once addressed him as “Bonjour, Monsieur Blatter.” No one is allowed to ride in the elevator with him, either. He isolates himself completely.

But not when it comes to Trump. How do you see Infantino’s approach to Trump?

As submissive. The Peace Prize for Trump is incomprehensible. Infantino curries favor with Trump because he needs him. And he needs Saudi Arabia. The Saudis financed his Club World Cup with one billion U.S. dollars. And they are hosting the 2034 World Cup. FIFA is dependent on money from Saudi Arabia.

Could Infantino be clever here? Through direct access he might influence Trump away from any foolish ideas about the World Cup.

So far, I have not heard or read of a single occasion on which Infantino stopped Trump from doing anything — even though his policies cry out to heaven.

There’s a movement to boycott the World Cup because of Trump’s relationship with Infantino. What’s your stance on it?

I am against a World Cup boycott. The key actors in football are the players, and they absolutely want to take part in the World Cup. If associations were to decide not to go, there would be an uprising — including among the more than two billion football fans worldwide.

EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef has called on Infantino to guarantee the safety of European fans who do travel to the United States, because of the role that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers will play in World Cup security. 

The EU sports commissioner’s concern is justified. Given the politically unstable situation and the security conditions in the United States, this tournament must be critically questioned. What happened in Minneapolis is worse than anything that ever happened in Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup. I sincerely hope that the king of football is stronger than politics and that calm will return once the ball starts rolling in the U.S.

Trump has imposed World Cup travel bans on fans from 39 countries, including Iran, Senegal and Haiti, which have qualified for the tournament. How should Infantino respond?

At every World Cup there is a contract between FIFA and the host country — in 2026 that is the United States, Mexico and Canada. It stipulates that all athletes, officials and fans of the qualified teams, as well as all referees, must receive visas. Infantino must make that clear to Trump and insist that the contract be fulfilled. His approval ratings could rise again if he were to say: “I will force Trump to ensure that everyone entitled receives a World Cup visa.” But he won’t do that, because the two are accomplices.

Iran and Egypt are protesting to FIFA that they don’t want to play as part of a “Pride Match,” as Seattle organizers designated their June 26 game in combination with LGBTQ+ community festivities, before the two conservative Muslim countries were selected to face each other there. FIFA has remained silent — how should it handle this sensitive issue?

There is a simple solution: If a team qualifies and, for whatever reason, refuses to play a match, then it should not even travel to the World Cup. Another team can take its place. That’s it.

Trump is threatening to strip democratically governed cities like Seattle of their World Cup matches in the event of unrest. Should FIFA under Infantino accept such interference?

Absolutely not! The World Cup schedule with its dates and host cities has long been finalized. Organizational discipline must be respected — by Trump and Infantino, as well.

Infantino is advocating for Russia to return to international soccer after being banned since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha calls him “morally degenerate” for doing so. Do you agree?

I am not a judge. My view on Russia: politics should be separated from sport, from football. We cannot exclude every country that is at war with another, otherwise not only Russia would be affected. And there are already several associations allowing Russian athletes to compete — for example in tennis or soon at the Paralympic Winter Games in Italy.

FIFA expects revenues from the 2026 World Cup to increase by 200 percent compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: a total of around $3 billion. Expensive tickets are affordable only for high earners, not for ordinary fans. Is this still the FIFA for which you worked 40 years “for the good of the game,” to quote your motto?

No. Who is FIFA today? It consists only of its president, Infantino. FIFA is a dictatorship! The FIFA Council, with almost 40 members, has nothing to say. My only contact with FIFA is through lawyers. I have never been criminally convicted, but FIFA continues trying to proceed against me on labor law grounds, although everything was done properly. The labor court in Zurich clearly ruled this in the first instance, but FIFA has appealed. So my struggle continues — even at almost 90 years old.

With what goal?

I want to be bid farewell at a FIFA Congress — honorably. I was never de jure removed or voted out; I placed my office at FIFA’s disposal in 2015. With an honorable farewell, the Blatter era at FIFA would finally be over.

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