But why is FIFA making an attempt so onerous to courtroom Donald Trump? | EUROtoday

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Kangaroo of the day

For months, the boss of Fifa has been rising gestures of allegiance. He attended the president’s inauguration in January, then invited him to current Chelsea’s medals on the Club World Cup. He adopted him to Egypt within the fall for a summit sealing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and even rented workplaces in one of many New York magnate’s towers. By prowling across the White House and Mar-a-Lago, Gianni Infantino gives the look of getting established a second residence there.

Infantino, the ex-critic turned courtier

Elected in 2016 to show the Blatter web page, the 55-year-old Italian-Swiss particular person then embodied a hope for reform. It has, in fact, expanded tournaments, boosted monetary reserves and elevated funding for girls’s soccer. But he has additionally turn out to be nearer to authoritarian regimes, from Russia to Qatar, and, now, to an American president whose excesses he as soon as denounced.

“It’s another world. Infantino is intoxicated by the elitist circles of power, status and wealth into which he has been propelled,” observes David Goldblatt, a British author and visiting professor at Pitzer College, talking at Los Angeles Timesthe worry of the boss of Fifa that an irascible Donald Trump will sabotage the World Cup. “This is not how states and heads of state operated in the past. » A new reality which translates concretely into spectacular gestures, such as the express relocation of the World Cup draw. Scheduled for Las Vegas, the ceremony was moved to Washington, by simple presidential decision.

Once again on Friday, Fifa departed from all its traditions with its improvised peace prize. It was the seventh meeting between Trump and Infantino since January. A closeness more intense than with any head of state. According to the LA Timesthe very recent “Fifa Peace Prize” was created with out even consulting the Fifa Council, made up of 37 members.