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European football's governing body, UEFA, is preparing to bring criminal proceedings against the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino
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over the attempts to sell shares in the World Cup to private investors
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The revelation is contained in legal documents with UEFA subpoenaing FIFA and the financial institutions involved in the US
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to obtain documents related to the scheme. Well, let's bring into the conversation here Lars Krista Olsen, who is a former chief executive of UEFA
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and delighted to say he joins me on the line now. Lars, Krista, thank you very much for your time, sir
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I mean, this row with Gianni Infantino is not going away. Should he just step aside
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Yeah, hopefully, I would say, but I'm not so sure he does
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because the situation in the world of football is, for the moment, I think that it's 50-50 whether he's leaving or not
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so this is why I think the precautions and the things organised by UEFA are correct
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to force him away and just explain a little more then about
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what you think UEFA are trying to do here because it's against Gianni
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Infantino and Joshua Kushner as well I don't think they are involving Kushner
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because it's It's against Gianni because he's the one who was bringing Kushner in
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and that is not the problem for FIFA if he wouldn't sell anything
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And now FIFA has said that they are pulling this idea back
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But I read recently, earlier tonight, that there also is a case
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where he was trying to sell out a youth under 15 competition
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So they are digging and trying to find material which is difficult for him to live with
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Will any amount of pressure from European football's governing body persuade Gianni Infantino to go
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Because clearly he has the support from other associations across the world Yes so UEFA cannot do it on their own They have to have some of the other confederations doing it together And I have heard as you probably know of course
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also that CONCACAF, the North American confederation also, the Asian confederation are also
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thinking about joining UEFA. And UEFA has said that they're threatened with boycotts, for example
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and that would be devastating for the world of football and the united form of organisation as FIFA should be
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will get a big blow of that. And they're fortunate in some way that we've had the World Cup
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Because if we were just months, weeks away from the Men's World Cup that we just saw
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and you had the serious prospect of, well, the winners, Spain, not competing, being a European football club
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I mean, there's no way a boycott would not force Infantino out, surely
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Yeah, but this didn't happen, did it? because now the threat of boycotts is more about minor competitions
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And I think the best way of getting rid of Infantino could be the way UEFA is now acting and making legal complaints
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And so that will be more difficult for him to handle, I think. What do you think he's doing to the reputation of football worldwide, Gianni Infantino
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Yeah, it's devastating. And the worst thing is, of course, that there will be internal conflicts within the football family
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And that is also why a boycott by Europe, for example, or even two confederations
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that would totally destroy the finances of FIFA also. So there is a lot at stake for the time being
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And clearly Gianni Infantino has actually had controversy ever since he started
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I mean there were all sorts of him being mentioned in the Panama Papers and there were all sorts of allegations of corruption Do you need to limit the amount of time that someone can serve as president of FIFA
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Yeah, I think so. I made a proposal some week ago, I think it was
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when I was talking to, especially you and the British media, that there should be a system, a rolling system
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which is given the different confederations four years of presidency over FIFA
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something like which is already organized in the European Union, for example
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There was a proposal there already in 98 from the UEFA president then, Johansson
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He proposed that there should be a rolling presidency principles because that would make it much more difficult
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for those who have dictator fashions to get so much power. And lastly, I don't know if you're a predictions or a betting man
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but do you think he'll be in his job by the time of the next major tournament
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the Euros, which actually I think are here, aren't they? Yeah. In my worst moments, I think he will survive
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because he's very good at keeping his network active and he's good at convincing people
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And Africa has already given him their support and there are 55 countries which are as big as UEFA, for example
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So he will not give up easily. So that is why I think that these allegations
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and bringing up legal matters is an additional factor which could make the difference
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Thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated. Lars Krista Olsen is the former chief executive of UEFA
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And for those who are not football fans, UEFA is the European football governing body, where, of course, FIFA is the world football governing body
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So very good to have that individual on who had such a senior role at UEFA
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I mean, it's just madness that this man is continuing in his job. I said earlier he was squatting
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and actually I think if you asked me two weeks ago I have said Infantino goes It inevitable As night follows day he have to go And now as Lars Krista just says
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I think he's going to stay. I think he's going to tough it out. He happens to have the fawning president all over him
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or Donald Trump. I mean, Gianni Infantino's all over him like a cheap suit, isn't he? He even made the FIFA Peace Prize for him
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He gave him a made-up prize in order to appease the ego of Donald Trump
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So I think the idea that Gianni Infantino is going to go quietly
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I mean, he's going to go kicking and screaming, and I don't think he's going to go at all, which I think is really ultimately depressing
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And how sad and annoying is it, by the way, as well, where the major tournaments, because let's call it what it is
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the Men's Football World Cup clearly has a massive following, but there are other tournaments as well
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and there's the Women's World Cup coming up. I think it might be under-16s, isn't it
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Which is round the corner. And the whole attitude to that was, well, of course, you know
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UEFA can boycott that and it's basically not going to be that big a deal. For a lot of these people, that'll be maybe because injuries
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and you don't know what happens with people playing football and particularly in women's football as well. Sadly, it doesn't have the investment that men's football does
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The idea that that is just going to, we can just sort of afford it
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and that ultimately tough luck if you're one of those women playing football
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but, you know, we need to get Gianni Infantino out. it's such a shame isn't it that we could have been in a position where that would have been
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completely boycotted and those people would have not gone to a world cup it was the women's under
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17s by the way at world cup so you could do your schedule for october as well so just around the
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corner so goodness knows i mean do we have any i suppose we don't know whether people are going to
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be competing in that i think there was a suggestion that we are but as long as this guy's there there's
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always going to be problems and let me tell you by the way just to be clear um uefa have filed
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proceedings in a court in Miami against Infantino, but also Thrive Capital, which is the investment
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company owned by Joshua Kushner, whose brother is Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner
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and also the former chief executive of Formula One owner Liberty Media, Greg Maffey. So we could
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see Joshua Kushner potentially having to testify in an American courtroom, who knows
