{"id":728923,"date":"2026-06-11T04:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T04:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:49:10","slug":"infantino-plays-the-hits-as-fifas-defender-in-chief-on-eve-of-world-cup-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728923\/","title":{"rendered":"Infantino plays the hits as Fifa\u2019s defender-in-chief on eve of World Cup | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gianni Infantino\u2019s speech on the eve of the 2022 World Cup<\/a> in Qatar is the stuff of legend. You know the one \u2013 the rambling, hour-long monologue where he told us all how he felt<\/a>. He felt gay that day. He also felt disabled, Qatari, Arab, African and like a migrant worker. In doing so, the Fifa president engraved himself permanently into meme culture, and his remarks remain a popular source of online amusement to this day.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, amid a gaggle of reporters and photographers, Infantino once again took to the stage. He sat in a tent in the shadow of the Estadio Azteca \u2013 it has been renamed Estadio Ciudad de M\u00e9xico for the World Cup<\/a> \u2013 a place many see as the western hemisphere\u2019s cathedral of football. On Thursday, Mexico will host South Africa in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Infantino\u2019s remarks were a nebulous defense of Fifa\u2019s decision to award the tournament to Qatar, a place with deeply regressive laws governing LGBTQ+ people, and where the tournament\u2019s stadiums were constructed in part using migrant workers, often under the harshest conditions<\/a>. His remarks Wednesday felt a bit like a redux. This tournament has its own issues and Infantino wasted no time in launching into a full-throated defense of Fifa\u2019s role in them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FifaFifa president Infantino tells fans to ‘chill’ after Somali referee denied US entry \u2013 video<\/p>\n

After a few throwaway remarks, Infantino went almost directly into addressing the situation surrounding Iran \u2013 players and staff of the team have struggled<\/a> getting visas to enter the United States, one of the World Cup\u2019s three host countries \u2013 saying he\u2019d have driven them to the tournament on a bus if needed. He breezed right into a defense of the tournament\u2019s eye-watering ticket prices<\/a>, suggesting they were in line with prices for playoffs in major US sports, an argument that disregards the fact that the vast majority of Americans can\u2019t afford to attend those playoff matches either.<\/p>\n

There were other controversies to quell. Maybe most striking was Infantino\u2019s defense of the US government\u2019s refusal to grant entry<\/a> to Omar Artan, a Somali referee. US officials say Artan has links to \u201csuspected members of terror organizations\u201d. Later, a British journalist asked Infantino about Artan\u2019s case<\/a>. Infantino wondered aloud whether Fifa should be allowed to alter the laws of the United Kingdom, the likely hosts of the 2035 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not the kings of the world,\u201d said Infantino, perhaps one of the only sporting executives who actually needs to clarify that. \u201cWe don\u2019t control everything. We try and discuss, and speak, and we\u2019ll see. Maybe sometimes it is good as well to just chill, relax, we work on everything, we try and solve everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino later praised the renovations to the Azteca, recalling the stadium\u2019s most famous moments \u2013 Pel\u00e9\u2019s triumph at the 1970 World Cup, Diego Maradona\u2019s mazy run during his brilliant goal at the 1986 tournament. He called the stadium \u201cblessed\u201d; just blocks away, Mexico\u2019s huddled masses have gathered<\/a> to protest what they perceive as unjust working conditions. Riot police have been outside the stadium for days and will have a greater presence in the days to come. Protesters have threatened to shut the opening match down entirely.<\/p>\n

Infantino did eventually play the hits. All it took was one softball question from a reporter who asked him how he can help unite the world, and he donned his demigod cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the magic and potential of the ball and of the World Cup trophy,\u201d said Infantino, sitting inches away from the trophy itself. \u201cLike all of you, I see the situation that the world is in. Additionally, we all have our own personal problems in every place in the world. But I think that an event of this magnitude and transcendent importance, like a World Cup, can help. I am convinced that human beings are good and not bad. Profoundly good, and not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, he praised Donald Trump, the same man who has spent the better part of a decade directing his ire at many of the marginalized people and communities Fifa<\/a> claims to serve, suggesting the tournament would never have happened without the US president\u2019s support. Most football fans, one suspects, would not trust Infantino to be the arbiter of good and bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino\u2019s speech on the eve of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is the stuff of legend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-728923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}