This speech, the communicators of Gianni Infantino prepared it meticulously, down to the smallest detail. No doubt the Italian-Swiss president of the International Football Federation (FIFA) suspected that this speech delivered in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on November 19, on the eve of the kick-off of the 2022 World Cup , was going to shock the West and go down in football history.
Between overplayed anaphora – “ Today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab(…) African(…) gay(…) disabled, (…) migrant worker » –, a regular attack on Europe and its “lessons” of morality, and his almost sacrificial defense of Qatar – “Crucify me, that’s what I’m here for” –, host country of the tournament plagued by criticism, Mr. Infantino, 52, made all his critics jump.
“This speech demonstrates once again that Infantino is not the right person to lead FIFA”sighs the jurist Mark Pieth, ex-boss of the governance committee of the International Federation. “His statements are mind-boggling, but unfortunately not surprising from a character who attacks the press and human rights defenders and for whom everyone is responsible for the current situation, except Qatar and FIFA”, tackle Anne Brasseur, the former Luxembourg president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and author, in 2017, of a damning report on Infantino governance at FIFA.
Far from being carried away by his verve, Mr. Infantino knowingly sent a political message in view of his re-election for a new mandate, in March 2023, during the polls scheduled in Kigali, Rwanda. The only candidate in the running, promised to be renewed by acclamation, he boasts of the historic FIFA revenues expected for the 2018-2022 cycle (7.5 billion dollars, around 7 billion euros) and undertakes to redistribute it a substantial share to the 211 voting national federations.
The native of Brig (canton of Valais) already enjoys the support of all the continental confederations with the exception of the extremely wealthy Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), some of whose members, such as Denmark or Germany, have announced that they would no longer support the incumbent leader, on the throne since 2016.
“Commercial performance”
On the UEFA side, little attention is paid to the Doha speech and “with old tricks” of Infantino in order to“isolate rich and arrogant Europe” and of “ensure the support of the rest of the world”. “He is trying to divide the world of football”, creaks Norway’s Karen Espelund, a former member of the UEFA executive committee.
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