The Captain Is Sailing Ahead

The summer of 2015 was a particularly volatile period for corruption in football's governing body. Sepp Blatter was at the helm at that time, and Gianni Infantino was leading a good life as general secretary of European football’s leading organization, UEFA.

Even though the Swiss were better known as the firm that paved the way for various UEFA competitions, including the crown jewel, the Champions League, there was a raucous atmosphere among the league officials. These led them to present a flat yet genial smile instead of the usual gasps and whoops. Infantino’s role required them very much.

In less than a year, the stoic master came to power at FIFA after a series of dramatic events. Blatter, who resigned over a dishonest structure, and Michael Platini were both banned because of corruption allegations. The technocratic image of Infantino, his sophisticated demeanor, and his fluency in as many as five languages (English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish) suited him for the most powerful position in all of sports perfectly.

The hands of Infantino had the know-how to run sports governing bodies that had not been embroiled in misconduct and corruption charges worth more than $150 million that led to an investigation spanning three decades, and he cleaned up the mess from its starting point.

He was not the "stereotypical" FIFA President but a lawyer and a career sports administrator. He said, at a campaign event in 2016 ahead of the FIFA election, “I would instigate a big plan for my first 90 days because I am not a politician who usually takes 100 days” as an answer to “why 90 days?”

Not an agent of change

Mr. Infantino has not needed the extreme power of the agency, and no longer is he seen as the agent of change he promised to be. That’s why the structure of FIFA is such that each of the 211 member nations has a vote, leaving the door open to all without looking at how big or small they are. A report in the Guardian points out that he had promised $5 million over four years for each of the member nations and six continental federations. These all aided football activities in many nations, and there is an increasing trend among sports administrators.

Under Infantino, FIFA expanded to be big; the Euros went from 16 teams to 24, and he has overseen an increase in the size of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, which will help Asian and African teams very well. A biennial World Cup and an expanded Club World Cup, which was held every four years, were also the results of his pet projects.

Breakaway League

To the chagrin of UEFA, he remained silent when a group of super-rich clubs in Europe came together to form a closed-door breakaway league to threaten the game's foundation. They thought his conduct was meant to diminish them and increase his popularity in this developing world, much like what Blatter had done before, but the reality was not like that.

Against this backdrop, Infantino's statement ahead of the Qatar World Cup was something special. He said that Europeans should be apologizing for the next 3000 years of their earlier actions. Infantino remains popular in the president's post, without any reports of financial incorrection, which strengthened the news that he would be re-elected unopposed for a third term at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, next year. He is a reserve captain navigating the stormy waters of FIFA.

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