If it is true, as I insist until I bore myself, that football is the great religion of the world, then FIFA is its Vatican, and Gianni Infantino, the Pope. He, whose official title is president of FIFA, seemed to believe he was infallible. The problem is that his followers have fallen into the heresy that he is not.
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And they are rebelling. The protocols are not very clear on this, but the clamor is growing for him to be excommunicated. There is a possibility that Infantino will last less in his position than Pedro Sánchez in his. That, as a Spanish variant of football liturgy says, “does not eat nougat,” does not make it to Christmas.
His sins? There are many, they say. One would be an impious fascination with money. Another, a tendency to worship false idols. Gianni is outraged, and he does not hide it. Being accused of all kinds of sacrileges just after the World Cup seems to him an offense against the spiritual values that the tournament so gloriously exalted. He said it on Instagram.
“I regret that the matches are already over and I regret that all that joy and that feeling of unity have been lost. I regret that they were so consumed by hatred and criticism that they missed it all… To those who dedicate themselves to spreading hatred and false rumors, I want to tell them that we, at FIFA, are on the front line organizing, working hard and offering the best show in the world.”
Well said. Does anyone doubt, perhaps, that the spectacle just offered by the World Cup final, the summit mass of football held every four years, was precisely a celebration in honor of joy and global unity? Gianni does not.
“To those who devote their time and energy to hating us,” he continued, “I ask them to take a moment to reflect, meditate, pray or watch a football match.” That is how Gianni sees it, but instead of praying at his feet, his detractors insist on slandering him. As soon as he published his encyclical on Instagram, they came back at him. The reason? The news that Gianni wanted to sell the World Cup to the family members of his number one idol, that character he sanctified with the FIFA Peace Prize, who does not share the football faith, the pagan Donald Trump.
You must have seen it: FIFA’s proposal to sell up to a third of the commercial rights of future World Cups to a private fund whose main investor is Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the billionaire U.S. representative in the so far not very effective attempts to negotiate peace in Ukraine, Iran, and the Holy Land.
Risk alert, FIFA president backtracks and gives up selling the World Cup to the Yankees
Well. What a mess. Spain, which has just won the World Cup, will celebrate the great rite on its lands the next time it is due, in 2030. Incredibly, Spain said it would boycott its own World Cup if Infantino did not back down from his plan to sell the tournament to the Yankees – supported, by the way, by JP Morgan bank – for thirty pieces of silver. Such selflessness or fervor in defense of the faith has not been seen since the Holy Inquisition.
But Spain was not alone. This time it was joined by the Protestant countries of the north. All of Europe is in rebellion against Infantino. UEFA, the organization that brings together the 55 football federations of the Old Continent, was blunt. In a statement this week it launched its threat: “UEFA and its federations will not participate in competitions organized by FIFA. We unanimously and unequivocally reject the plan to transfer the rights of the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors.”
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The Africans and South Americans did not speak out, but the parishes that rule football in Asia and North America, the AFC and Concacaf, rejected the proposal with almost equal vehemence, without going as far as considering the possibility of withdrawing from the next World Cup.
But there is more. The Norwegians and Belgians are considering filing a formal complaint for “lack of ethics” after Infantino’s controversial decision, at Trump’s instigation, to withdraw the red card from an American player so that he could play a match in the recently concluded World Cup. And on top of that, the United States Congress has joined the global orgy of resentment, proposing that an auto-da-fé be held against Infantino.
On Monday, Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, announced that he had opened an investigation into the relationship between FIFA and the Trump Administration, and sent a letter to Infantino demanding that he submit to questioning before that House.
Trump has already proposed the football Pope for the UN: an opportunity to make money playing peace
Infantino is living a martyrdom unseen since the times of Saint Job, whom God tested by stripping him of his wealth, his children, and his health, leaving him covered in sores and plunged into the most atrocious suffering. Job passed the test. God absolved him. He restored his fortune and granted him a long life as a reward for the perseverance with which he defended his commitment to faith. Will this be the outcome of the Infantino saga? Will it be recognized that, as he insists, everything he has done has been for the good of the holy FIFA? Or will they take away his papal crown?
Risk alert, Infantino backtracked. After having developed his plan in secret with his American accomplices for a year, without consulting the other top FIFA officials, he abruptly threw it all in the trash. He acknowledged on Friday that his project had generated “divisions” and no longer served “the interests” of international football – code for “if I don’t quit they will cut off my head” –.
His very serious mistake was letting himself be contaminated by Trumpist mercantile instincts. He forgot that he is a Pope, not a CEO. That football is not a product, but a passion of religious character for half of humanity. Will he be forgiven or is it too late and are his betrayals too many?
Many in the great FIFA family have lost all faith in him. But if he falls, he will have a possible consolation. Gianni trusts that his beloved Donald will not forget the favors received. Trump has already proposed him as the next UN Secretary-General, an opportunity if he wants to privatize geopolitics, make money – like Jared Kushner – playing peace, achieve heaven on Earth. But he deserves hell.
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