FIFA denies that Infantino is seeking help from Trump

A FIFA source told Fox News that the Post’s report would be “erroneous” and that there is no scheduled call between Infantino and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio or any other member of Trump’s cabinet.

The NY Post report had said that the conversation would take place this Monday. “He wanted to talk online with the secretary about how football can be a form of soft power for the United States,” said a Post source, who belongs to the Murdoch family, which also owns Fox News.” “But we all know this is about job protection. It’s not about anything more than that at this point.”

The New York Post had also stated that Infantino had repeatedly tried to contact Trump and was seeking influential “allies” to publicly defend him since a proposal to create a US$20 billion company to manage the World Cup and other international tournaments with private investors was removed from the agenda by FIFA on Friday (31).

Among the intended investors was the holding company Thrive Eternal, owned by Joshua Kushner, whose brother, Jared Kushner, is Trump’s son-in-law.

The project led UEFA, the European football confederation, to announce that its national federations would not participate in FIFA competitions, was criticized by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Associations (Concacaf) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and made Carlos Cordeiro, adviser to the world federation and Infantino’s right-hand man, announce his resignation from his position because he disagreed with the proposal.

Faced with the negative repercussion, Infantino gave up on the idea, but the episode continues to erode his image: the Welsh football federation withdrew its support for the manager’s re-election and other national entities, such as England, also signaled in this direction. Voting will be held in March.