Gianni Infantino, the president of the international football association Fifa, knows how to make cheerful statements. In May, the man said that the union he controlled was “the official producer of happiness in humanity”.
The statement is comical and shocking at the same time, because under the leadership of the Swiss lawyer, the World Cup tournament has turned almost exclusively into a party for the elite.
Ticket prices for the tournament, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, are skyrocketing. Kattoliitto has shown the middle finger to the so-called ordinary fans by bumping the prices of even the cheapest category tickets to an accordion of $140 to $1,410.
Through Infantino’s mouth, Fifa advertises at every turn that it has offered $60 tickets, but their number is so small that only very few lucky ones can get to the stadiums without a severe wallet squeeze.
And when it comes to the United States, the ticket price alone doesn’t tell the whole story. On top of that are accommodation costs and parking, for which you have to set aside several hundred dollars.
The football business has taken a new direction, from which there is no going back.
At the World Cup held in Russia in 2018, Infantino got to present the World Cup trophy to Vladimir Putin. PDO
Infantino promised during the application process for the Games that tightening US immigration laws would not be a problem.
– Teams that make it to the World Cup must have access to the country. Otherwise, there will be no World Cup competitions. It’s a given, Infantino stated in 2017.
During the last week, it has been noticed that the speeches have not held. The Iranian players have said that they were interrogated for hours at the airport. Without visas, the team manager, media representative, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and two analysts remained from the Iranian team.
The national teams of Senegal and Uzbekistan have also received rude treatment at the airport.
Fifa has transferred the responsibility for the embarrassing situation to the account of the US authorities, although the umbrella association has traditionally been responsible for the smoothness and security of matters related to the tournament.
Infantino has tried to maintain close relations with Trump, but the president’s incitement does not seem to guarantee the functionality of even the basics of the Games.
– Ass-licking didn’t help anything, a Fifa executive told the Independent about Infantino’s actions.
Infantino grabbed the presidency of Fifa with a terse election speech in which he promised everyone more money.
– Fifa’s money is your money. It is not the Fifa president’s money. It’s your money, Infantino declared before the 2016 presidential vote.
Money is of course of interest to everyone, but the words had a special echo base brought by the corruption scandal of outgoing president Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, who was expected to be his successor. According to the claim, the duo had transferred the sum of 1.7 million euros to Platini.
Blatter and the French legend were found not guilty last year, but for Infantino, the uproar came at a convenient time.
The man who came to power has understood the global potential of football and succeeded in making the sport even bigger. He has also been suspected of corruption, but so far there is no evidence.
Infantino has turned a lump registered as a non-profit organization into a huge money maker. The financial side of World Cup tournaments grows by all measures from one tournament to the next.
According to the most recent report, the income of the four-year cycle culminating in the USA, Canada and Mexico tournament will grow to a record 11.25 million euros, of which the pot of 7.8 million will come from the World Cup alone.
According to Fifa’s own calculations, the value of sponsorship contracts will increase from 1.55 billion to 2.4 billion. The value of broadcasting rights will rise from just under three billion to 3.7 billion.
Behind everything is the fact that the number of participants in the World Cup competitions was increased from 32 to 48 teams, which means that there are 104 games instead of the previous 64.
– When the noise and politics are ignored, Fifa’s commercial department has done a very impressive job, Ricardo Fort, the consultant who negotiated Fifa’s contracts with Coca-Cola and Visa told the Guardian.
Fifa has to distribute the income it receives. After World Cup organization costs and prize money, 212 sports federations get a dividend, whose pots are the same regardless of the size of the country.
During Infantino’s era, the sums have increased eightfold, so against that background, it cannot be considered a surprise that he was elected three years ago for a further season without an opponent.
There are many things about Gianni Infantino. In May, at the Canadian Grand Prix, he became a fan of the Montreal Canadiens. PDO
After his election victory in 2016, Infantino, who became known to the football public as the face of the Euro tournament draws, offered a joke to the journalists and presented himself as a new era leader who guarantees transparency in Fifa.
Today, he is an unpopular figure with embarrassing comments, who has slipped into the same circles as the world’s most famous decision-makers. The 2034 Games were awarded to Saudi Arabia after a severely lax selection process.
Infantino has distanced himself from the fans and moved closer to the elite.
He has won the money race and lost the hearts.
But would things have gone the other way with someone else in charge?
The direction of the world championships is the same as the rest of the sports world. Fewer and fewer people can afford to come to stadiums, and more and more are content to follow the events via the screen.
This suits Fifa very well, whose biggest revenue stream comes from TV rights. The tickets for this summer’s tournament have sold quite well, despite all the scaremongering.