Expert explains why Gianni Infantino failed: “He wants to be a mafia boss”

This week Infantino presented his plan, Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), in which the organization of Fifa’s major tournaments would be transferred to the control of a private company. The 21 percent minority stake would be sold to a private investor group. The group was ready to pay about 3.65 billion euros for its share.

In the proposal, each of FIFA’s 211 member countries would have received about 35 million euros over two four-year periods.

European however, strong opposition from UEFA turned the rest of the football world against Infantino’s plan. Uefa members announced that they will boycott FIFA competitions until the FFE is sacked and it is ensured that nothing similar is proposed again. [font-size:var(–leadin-font-size)]”>Tampere University docent of media culture Sami Kolamo estimates that Infantino’s plan fell due to the arrogance of the Fifa boss. “Football doctor” Kolamo estimated that the Swiss Infantino overestimated the interest of his plan, and therefore Infantino did not secure his background with sufficient support for the FFE before announcing the proposal.

“The FFE was built in secret from the world’s football decision-makers. They are very influential people who do not like to be bypassed in the planning and in decision-making. This was visible and heard in the announcements of the Asian (AFC) and Central American (Concacaf) confederations. In the end, Infantino lacked the broad international support that his predecessors, namely Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter, traditionally had”, says Kolamo.

Kolamo reminds that Havelange and Blatter’s support was largely based on AFC, Concacaf and Africa To meet the needs of CAF’s poorer football nations. When they increased football’s common money pot and generously distributed it to smaller countries, they also supported the presidents’ wildest proposals without reservation. also in the way the FFE was presented to the Fifa member countries. The idea was that this is a take-it-or-leave-it deal. It also exposed Infantino’s weakness. They ensured that a close circle loyal to them was in power in the continental confederations. Infantino does not appear to have the same unreserved support within football, despite his steadfast position as Fifa president. He has built his own power networks outside of football in the world of politics and economics. The fact that the people behind FFE’s investment company were from Trump’s inner circle also speaks for itself. ”

According to Kolamo, Infantino’s promises to clean up Fifa and increase transparency 10 years ago are not have come true, even though Infantino has not succeeded in building the same kind of iron inner circle as Blatter, for example. significant.

“At the time of Havelange and Blatter, there was talk of FIFA being mafia-like, and it was even confirmed by the US federal police FBI in their own investigations in the last decade. Infantino wanted to be the commissioner of football – like a mafia boss who is completely untouchable with the support of his investor group.”

Now Infantino is weakened, but according to Kolamo, he will not disappear anywhere.

“It is absolutely pointless to wait for Infantino to apologize for his actions, or for him to leave his position. He probably thinks that it’s only other people who didn’t realize the awesomeness of his great plan. It tells about the underlying arrogance of the whole thing.”