Infantino’s FIFA is running out of credibility – and cash
There are a significant number of people who want to see Gianni Infantino fail as FIFA president, and they include the likes of Australian sportswear entrepreneur Jamie Fuller and British MP Damian Green, who believe that the world football federation was brought to its knees by the Havelange/Blatter regimes and is in the death throes.
For them it is beyond redemption. No matter who sits on the throne.
Others, such as embittered former employees and the media commentators who have their ear, believe that the former UEFA general-secretary has risen above his station and demonstrated an inability to cope with his role.
Further critics fear that Infantino’s own ego has obstructed his ability to pilot FIFA into the safe port Sepp Blatter could see over the horizon before he was drowned in stormy seas largely of his own making.
Infantino has been accused of various sins, such as the use of private jets, his expense account, the fatuous and diversionary "legends" circus, and meddling beyond the call of duty in the ousting of Issa Hayatou as president of the African confederation.
Far more serious, however, is the financial situation. This is crucial.
Infantino won the election 18 months ago by promising a massive increase in development support and an increase in World Cup numbers. He has kept his word on this, but whether he can keep his word on development funds is intriguing. Emirates and Sony quit as sponsors – or “partners” as corporate speak would have it – with Qatar Airways and Wanda stepping up, along with several other ambitious commercial unknowns.
The significance of these commercial changes did not escape the view of Patrick Nally, FIFA’s original super-salesman back in the 1970s. As he noted: “Once the world’s biggest companies fell over themselves to sponsor the World Cup. Not any more.”
That is the commercial reality of FIFA’s political failure under Blatter and now Infantino. Credibility has vanished, the senior salesmen have been replaced and FIFA has been left staring at two successive years of heavy losses.
Infantino has promised revenues generated by the excitement of World Cup year will put this all to financial right. Yet this is not guaranteed and at the 2019 Congress, Infantino’s success or failure will be evident in the figures.
To paraphrase CP Scott: opinion is free; accounts are sacred.