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World Cups are meant to be memorable, but not for this
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I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other
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and got entangled. That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that would be
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different. The president of the host nation pressuring FIFA to overturn a red card and
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getting their way. All eyes are now on Gianni Infantino, FIFA's president who answered Donald
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Trump's call to cancel the suspension of the US team's star striker. But how did this bromance
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between the US and FIFA presidents come about? And how did it lead to one of the most scandalous
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World Cup moments in living memory? It kind of goes back to 2018
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Obviously, Trump was in the White House then as well. And America, alongside Canada and Mexico
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had just won the rights to host this World Cup. Infantino was in the Oval Office
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gave him a jersey and a pack of red cards, which I think Trump quite enjoyed thrusting
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towards the lobby and the Oval Office. You know, in soccer, we have referees
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And they have cards. Yellow cards and red cards. Yellow card is a warning
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And when you want to kick out someone... Like this. That's true, that's true
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That's very good. So this could be useful, I don't know. I like that. That's for you. And when Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024, amongst the business tycoons
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commentators and close allies invited to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was the FIFA
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president. What an incredible honour, what an incredible privilege at the victory rally
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President Donald J. Trump, in his speech, mentioned FIFA, mentioned myself. I would like to thank
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President Trump, with whom I have a great friendship, and to assure him that together
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we will make not only America great again but also the entire world of course
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because football or soccer unites the world. Bye. So it dates back quite a while and it obviously a kindred relationship It obviously got a lot closer to very powerful men with huge influence over their respective kind of fields Since then it seen Infantino join Trump to the Middle East on kind of official trips
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It's seen the pair kind of strike up a resoundingly close relationship
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And FIFA have even opened an office in Trump Tower. So, you know, it really has gone on for a little while
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And it hasn't gone unnoticed. Questions were raised over the involvement of a FIFA president in geopolitics
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and UEFA, Europe's football governing body, accused Infantino of pursuing his private interests
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Even more strange has been Mr Infantino's desire to position himself as a Middle East peace broker
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and it hasn't gone well, as this interaction at FIFA's Congress between the presidents of the Israeli and Palestinian football associations shows
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So how did the FIFA president try and repay Donald Trump? Well, when it turned out Trump was being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, Infantino had a brainwave
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And therefore, FIFA, the Federacion Internationale de Football Association, awards the 2025 FIFA
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Peace Prize, Football Unites the World, to Donald J. Trump. incredible to see president of the united states getting that this year not only is it a very ugly
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trophy it's kind of loads of hands kind of clawing at a football slash globe but it happens in a year
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where obviously trump has uh started a conflict with iran we've had problems in south america with
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with kind of operations the states are doing there and then obviously last couple of years as well so
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it's a really interesting one there but then beyond that the club world cup which was held in america
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last year is kind of a, it's always seen as like a trial or will be seen as a trial for a World Cup
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Trump said that Infantino had let him keep the trophy that Chelsea won and that Chelsea would
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get a replica. No one quite knows whether that's ever happened, but Trump reiterated that a couple
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of times. FIFA's statutes say that there should be no political influence in sports. So this really
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is quite funny seeing this friendship blossom You know I not saying Infantino hasn struck up similar relationships or attempted to with both Canada and Mexico but clearly it hasn been anywhere near as close as it has been for Trump
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And the reason is it's the year of the president. It's the most powerful man at the moment
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He was named on City AM's football power list. He probably won't be there next year, but this is the year where football and America really do cross over
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And there will be a part of Infantino that sees a growth market in America
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then this World Cup can generate nine billion for FIFA. So he's looking at North America where they love their NFL, their basketball
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and he's seeing an opportunity to maybe get into the one continent where soccer hasn't really broken into
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And there's a shamelessness that comes with that. I think you look at there were concerns around human rights abuses in Qatar
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And there is a very valid point to say, you know, lots of countries have this
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But the way he came to defend Qatar in that situation was to give a very weird press conference
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Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker
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And this kind of communication strategy he's got is just a little bit kind of cloud cuckoo land
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It's kind of, oh, it will work and one strategy fits all
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This World Cup's kind of seen some things like that. We saw Thomas Partey, the former Arsenal player who's been charged with counts of rape
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denied access to Canada but allowed into America. We've seen things with Iran where they've had to stay in Mexico, fly into their games in the States and fly back out
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and obviously immigration as well. There was a Somali referee who was denied access
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to the World Cup as well. So, you know, if Infantino had the power he thinks he did
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he probably could have had an influence on this stuff. But it does look like
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and we can't accuse them of anything, they deny it. But when the president gets on the phone
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you know, to talk about something as measly as a red card, it looks like some cogs could be turned by some
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as I say, FIFA denied that this happened and everything was independent
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But to many football fans, FIFA decision to overturn a red card against the US was far from independent not least because Donald Trump admitted to making the call and pressuring FIFA Yeah I did I spoke to Johnny who highly respected But all I did all I did I asked for a review because I didn think it was a foul
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And, you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two
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great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a, that was not a guy
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punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different? It feels quite one way. It looks like this this week proved during the situation
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Trump, as will come to no surprise to anybody, was quite happy to throw someone under the bus and and talk about private messages
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You know, this is something Trump's done with Emmanuel Macron and others. So this shouldn't come to a surprise, but maybe Infantino thought he was the lucky one and maybe he too has been caught out
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I think the last time this happened where a red car was suspended and not overturned was 1962
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And that was a Brazilian player. And he was allowed to play in the semi-final that year
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This is rare. I think it's interesting when you talk about language here
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I think that's important. FIFA seem to be collating both overturning and suspending
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You know, they both mean very different things. Overturning means that you don't think it was a red card
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Suspending means you do, but you've got a reason to stop it. So FIFA need to get their story straight on what they're going with here
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FIFA will look to avoid any reputational damage from this World Cup following the red card incident
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And for the meantime, Infantino has a firm grip over the organisation's future
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I think football will trundle on as it always has. You know, there were people before Gianni Infantino
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Sepp Blatter was impeached for his own form of problem. The thing is, is this, Infantino's been in for 10 years
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He's up for election next year. I think South America, Asia and Africa have already backed him
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which means he's got enough votes to carry on. and while there is a 12
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year term at FIFA and Infantino's at 10 because he replaced Sepp Blatter midway through Sepp's
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final term before he got impeached, technically Infantino can now do a full term so we might
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get 15 years of Infantino when only there isn't an official term limit of 12
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and how suitable would that be for the events we've seen over the last couple of days
