World Cup<\/a> ever.<\/p>\n\u201cIn 2035 we hope the Women\u2019s World Cup will be in the United Kingdom,\u201d he said. \u201cWould you find it normal that Fifa would dictate to the British government who to let into the country?<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately we live in an aggressive world and security goes above everything.<\/p>\n
Gianni Infantino was talking to the media in Mexico City a day before the start of the World Cup. Photograph: Henry Romero\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I say chill I don\u2019t mean sit and do nothing. I mean trust us that we are trying to find solutions. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Infantino was equally robust in defence of Fifa\u2019s ticket pricing, claiming that if they were cheaper the majority of would have been resold on the black market, and that the money generated was required to fund football in poor countries all over the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil today we have sold over six million tickets,\u201d he said. \u201cThe demand has been unprecedented, not by a little bit, but by a factor of 10 or more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup is a unique event that takes place every four years, and when you\u2019re in one country you need to deal with local habits and local customs. Our entry price at $60 is the lowest of all the American sports in the playoff phases. Our average price of $500 is lower than the average price for American playoffs. You can at least compare the World Cup with the playoffs. When we put tickets on sale on the secondary market they are sold at a much higher price, which shows the original price was accurate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s most important in all of this is that every dollar we generate goes back into football. If we were selling our TV rights to pay-TV, like everyone else, we would generate four times as much revenue. And we could give all the tickets away, but they would still end up on the black market.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Fifa president we have to strike a balance. We invest in countries where no one else does \u2013 South Sudan, Bhutan. No one else is doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Infantino also claimed credit for the participation of Iran despite the fact that they have been forced to move their training camp to Mexico with many of their backroom team denied entry to the US, and ended with a personal note of thanks to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to see the Iran team in Turkey in March when people were saying it would be impossible for them to come,\u201d he said. \u201cI told them they would come and if I had to take a bus to Iran and drive them here, I would. They said they would drive the bus themselves. I don\u2019t know who else in these circumstances would have made sure that Iran would come and play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of my team and grateful to the administrations of all three host countries. I have a great relationship with President Trump. Without his engagement it would have been impossible to organise a World Cup in the United States. He understood immediately the magnitude of the World Cup and he helped to assist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino told football fans to \u201cchill and relax\u201d on the eve of the World Cup, while Fifa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-486480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}