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Chapter 1: What challenges did FIFA face after Sepp Blatter's presidency?
In 2015, FIFA was in freefall. FIFA's longtime president, Sepp Blatter, had just stepped down in disgrace. More than a dozen officials had been indicted. Some pleaded guilty. Others were convicted at trial. A few served prison time in the U.S. We tell that story in episode one, which came out last Sunday. So FIFA needed to move forward.
And the nonprofit that oversees the world's most watched sporting event was looking for a new president. How do you run for FIFA president?
Chapter 2: How did Gianni Infantino become FIFA president?
What's the process like for choosing a president of FIFA?
FIFA operates like any sort of democratic institution. So it's one country, one vote, and whoever gets the most votes becomes president. And I think there were five in the running to replace Blatter.
The man who ended up winning the job was Gianni Infantino. He'd been in charge of UEFA, the European soccer body. And he promised big changes at FIFA. My colleagues Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson told me the story. His platform was basically... Make FIFA great again? Essentially, yes.
It was like radical transparency. Change we can believe in.
Exactly.
And he was going to get FIFA back to its roots, loving football. This organization that has operated for too long in the shadows and has now been found to have
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Chapter 3: What promises did Infantino make to change FIFA?
allowed all this corruption to run rampant will be brought up to sort of modern standards there will be a much greater focus on ethical behavior and all the bad stuff that happened on the set will no longer happen that was back in 2016 infantino has now been president of fifa for a decade and over that time josh and john say that infantino's big promises to the fans haven't come through
I think the World Cup, certainly as far as FIFA and Infantino are concerned, has ceased to be a tournament about the fans. And that's, again, something that we're witnessing now in the 2026 World Cup, when the considerations of fans seem to be the last thing on FIFA's mind.
From the Journal, this is our two-part Sunday special on the World Cup. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's June 14th. Coming up, part two. How far can Gianni Infantino take the World Cup? Johnny Infantino became FIFA president in 2016. He's part Swiss, Italian, and Lebanese. He's bald, has thick eyebrows, and often wears a dark suit and white sneakers.
Welcome. Bienvenidos. Bienvenue. Bienvenidos. Bienvenuti. Willkommen. Ahlan wa sahlan in all the languages of the world.
Early on, he tried to differentiate himself from the corruption scandals that happened under his predecessor, Sepp Blatter.
He's pledged to organize regular matches at FIFA headquarters, in which he often plays. I personally watched him take one of the worst corner kicks I've ever seen anyone who's kicked a ball take.
So he plays, but not maybe super well, but... Not especially well. So he also surrounded himself with FIFA legends. He loves a FIFA legend. Great players of days of yore. He would spend a lot of time palling around with those. to sort of emphasize his relationship with the players and the fans.
Because I think that one of the other things about the Bladder era is that FIFA had come to feel very distant from the players who play in the World Cup and the fans who fund the whole thing.
He also early on made headlines because he was going to control FIFA's costs. And so he started flying on EasyJet around Europe.
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Chapter 4: How has FIFA's focus shifted away from fans?
A low-budget European airline.
Exactly. Infantino was sort of promised to bring the game back to the fans and have them be a much more powerful constituency in how the organization operated going forward.
Every day should be about joy, about fun, about passion. And we have to take ourselves a little bit less serious.
We have to be serious.
Fans didn't feel taken care of. They were upset about FIFA's decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
It wasn't just the countries bidding to host the tournament who were dismayed by the decision to award it to Qatar. It was also the fans who, you know, had to go to, you know, the middle of a desert in the height of summer, who also felt that their interests weren't being, you know, looked after by FIFA.
But Infantino decided not to revisit that decision.
And that becomes very clear from the moment he's elected, that that decision will not be questioned. This is the lot that he's been handed, and he's going to execute these World Cups as best he can. If one thing becomes clear very early on, it's that the only thing Gianni Infantino loves as much as he loves soccer is proximity to power.
There's one image of Infantino that Josh says was a symbol of where his presidency at FIFA was headed. It comes from the opening match at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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Chapter 5: What controversies surrounded the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
Today I feel... A migrant worker.
And that Kassar had done a great job enfranchising them.
What did you make of that? Like, what did that say about Infantino's leadership and what he was doing as president?
I think it sort of reinforced the idea that this was a guy who was sort of a little bit out of touch with how most football fans were thinking, most soccer fans were thinking.
And was there evidence that Qatar had actually done better on these fronts, that it had made an effort to... I think there's absolutely no question that they...
have, yeah, that the conditions for migrant workers did improve, you know, partly as a result of the kind of spotlight that was shown on Qatar after winning the World Cup.
It's not clear exactly how many migrant workers died in Qatar. Some human rights groups put the figure in the hundreds. The government of Qatar said at the time that the number is 37. In addition to speaking out publicly in support of Qatar, FIFA made some big concessions in order to make the World Cup in
Like, they came up with a novel solution to the problem of hosting a soccer tournament during a sweltering Qatari summer.
They solved that problem, too, not just by air conditioning the stadiums, but also by moving the entire tournament out of summer for the first time ever.
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Chapter 6: How did Infantino address human rights issues in Qatar?
Yes, exactly. Die Hard reruns are supposed to be on right now.
Greatest Christmas movie of all time. And instead we have, you know, England-Senegal. So, you know, like I say, an earth-shattering decision to move the Summer World Cup to the winter.
Then, 48 hours before the tournament started, Qatar sprang a surprise on soccer fans in town for the games.
Football fans will no longer be allowed to buy alcohol around World Cup stadiums. This very late decision comes ahead of the opening game in Qatar on Sunday.
I remember that. That was wild.
Yeah, that was almost the shockiest decision to award Qatar the World Cup in the first place. I mean, a World Cup without beer is like... A World Cup without a ball. Exactly.
Do you feel like this typified, in some ways, the way FIFA was changing the things that you were seeing with what happened with Qatar?
I mean, I think it's certainly... So the beer thing, the decision on beer, was another example of how FIFA has sort of ceded so much power to the countries that are hosting the World Cup that they were essentially, you know, being held hostage by Qatar, who had... the World Cup and were then able to sort of act as they wanted.
You know, FIFA charges Budweiser, you know, millions of dollars to be its primary alcohol sponsor. And the idea that they would be prohibited from selling anything other than Bud Zero at the tournament was a huge black eye for them and a huge problem for their marketing arm going forward.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the 2026 World Cup for FIFA?
He loves being made to feel important. And in Trump, he kind of found a kindred spirit.
It's no exaggeration to say that Infantino considers himself a global leader. You know, in the same sphere as Trump and Putin, he considers himself a sort of world-changing humanitarian.
A White House official said that President Trump and Infantino share a genuine friendship built on a common vision. This friendship was on full display at the World Cup draw held last December. The draw is when the match schedule and the lineup for the World Cup games are set.
It was a snazzy event held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with sports stars and soccer officials in the audience. It was snowing outside. Everyone had been made to queue for hours outside in the snow.
Chapter 8: Is FIFA becoming too big to fail in the world of sports?
But the draw wasn't the only highlight of the evening. Infantino was presenting a new award, the FIFA Peace Prize.
We pile into the auditorium and Infantino makes a special presentation of the FIFA Peace Prize, which is a trophy and a medal. There's, you know, everything had been created specifically for this moment.
On stage, Infantino stood next to President Trump and gave him that award.
Mr. President, this is your prize. This is your Peace Prize.
Infantino showered praise on Trump. He hailed the words that Trump had taken credit for stopping or preventing.
A beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go.
I'm going to wear it right now.
Okay, let me hold. Ah, fantastic. Excellent.
It's no secret that Donald Trump would love to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
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