Gianni Infantino should account for his trip alongside Donald Trump to the Gulf this week and “detail precisely what it achieved for football and human rights”, according to a leading critic of Fifa’s governance.
Human Rights Watch says that Infantino’s trip, in which he accompanied the US president to Qatar and Saudi Arabia and missed a series of key meeting at Fifa’s annual congress, was indicative of the lack of “meaningful accountability” at the top of football’s global authority.
European delegates walked out of the congress in Paraguay on Thursday in protest at the Fifa president’s late arrival, with Uefa claiming “private political interests” had driven Infantino’s decision to prioritise the Gulf trip.
Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, said the organisation “calls for Gianni Infantino to account for his trip to the Gulf and detail precisely what it achieved for football and human rights”.
Worden said: “Fifa have no meaningful systems of accountability. This is the main reason why Fifa has lost its social licence. Instead of calling out the Trump administration on it pernicious policies, Infantino has become part of his travelling entourage. Infantino claimed these were vital meetings with Trump and Gulf leaders, but why would that take priority over the congress, the only annual opportunity for national associations to feed into football governance? The fact he couldn’t be bothered to show up shows a papal conclave has more accountability than a congress.”
Uefa did not expand on Friday onits explosive statement, with insiders suggesting “the point was made”. But there remains anger within European football’s governing body, with executives describing Infantino as following Trump “like a puppy” and his treatment of the congress as “disrespectful and arrogant”. One senior figure told the Guardian: “The guy has lost it.”
Some figures within Uefa even sense Infantino’s actions have jeopardised his prospects of a fourth term in office when Fifa’s next election comes around in 2027, although his position is currently shored up by a significant level of global backing.
Victor Montagliani, the head of Concacaf, which oversees football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, told reporters he did not support the walkout. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said. On Friday the South American football confederation, Conmebol, said it was to name a new extension to its hotel complex in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, the Infantino tower.
A Fifa meeting scheduled for Miami in June, in the month the controversial Club World Cup is to kick off in the US state, could be the next flashpoint, with some European nations saying they are working on how to drive forward the issue of governance within Fifa by then.
At congress Infantino apologised on stage for his absence several times and said it was important he represented football at the meetings. “As president of Fifa my responsibility is to make decisions in the interests of the organisation,” Infantino said. “I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.”
Fifa has been approached for comment.