Жианни Инфантиногийн эрх мэдэл ганхаж эхэллээ

Oh, for those quaint days when Gianni Infantino floated around, handing out made-up peace prizes to the President of the United States of America, and everyone giggled because the trophy looked like fingers tickling an unmentionable body part.

Just in case you have forgotten, within a month Donald Trump launched a military strike in Venezuela and then, a month after that, he started bombing Iran, which became the first country to play at a World Cup where it is at war with one of the hosts.

You cannot accuse FIFA of being afraid to break boundaries. At this summer’s World Cup, Trump would happily admit to lobbying Infantino to rescind the suspension of a U.S. player who had been sent off. It duly happened.

Last weekend, Infantino pushed back against his haters with a 15-page meltdown on social media — 36 hours later, his proposal to sell off the World Cup and parts of the organisation he represents, potentially to a private investment fund led by a member of Trump’s extended family, became a matter of public discussion due to some outstanding news reporting.

Infantino berated the media for the treatment coming his way but imposed a series of close deadlines on confederations who had not been consulted on the idea, before one of them, UEFA, announced its members would boycott the World Cup and all FIFA tournaments unless the proposal was dropped.

Then, only last night, an email sent by FIFA (albeit without Infantino’s signature) acknowledged the inevitable climbdown. “It has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” it read. “As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

Given all of this has played out in public, you have to wonder about the stuff we do not see. Clearly, UEFA has had enough of Infantino. This morning, European football’s governing body declared a loss of confidence in FIFA leadership, saying “no option should be off the table” when it comes to reform.

“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” a UEFA statement read. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.”

At the start of the summer, Infantino seemed untouchable but there is a mood of mutiny in the air. Questions about whose interests Infantino is serving have developed beyond average cynics who tend to suspect this type of thing. Now, doubts are held by the confederations that collectively have the power to get rid of him.

It all begs the question: is football finally poised for a reset moment? This would feel like the right time. It is the start of another World Cup cycle, with the memories of the Folarin Balogun affair, exorbitant ticket costs and hydration breaks still fresh (even if the footballers and fans did their best to deliver a proper spectacle). Infantino is up for re-election in March, with candidates needing to declare their intention to run by November 18.

Surely there is someone out there who could deliver a manifesto that would appeal to those who have long campaigned for cultural change in football, while not frightening too many member associations who have benefitted — financially and on the pitch — from Infantino’s regime?

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Paris Saint-Germain president from Qatar, who sits on FIFA’s council and is the chairman of European Football Clubs (EFC), says he has “no ambition, no intention and no interest in the FIFA role” but other names have been linked more prominently, including Victor Montagliani, the head of Concacaf, and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the head of the Asian Football Confederation. Lise Klaveness, the impressively combative head of the Norwegian Football Federation, would struggle to win enough support but would be an intriguing candidate.

Could Victor Montagliani, who presides over North American, Central American and Caribbean football, replace Infantino? (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

It will be interesting to see which moves UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin makes from here.His term also ends next year, and while in 2024 he announced that he would not run again, it would be fascinating to know if thereally big job appeals.

UEFA might seem to Europeans, at least, like the good guys in all of this, but it does not have a great record when it comes to a clean delivery of its own competitions, as supporters of Liverpool and Manchester City will testify following the chaos of Champions League finals in 2022 and 2023.

In the first of those showpiece events, UEFA made two statements blaming a delay to kick-off on “thousands of fans” for arriving late, only for an internally commissioned review to find that ticketing arrangements and security failings led by UEFA and local authorities had “almost led to a disaster”. After an apology, Liverpool fans were promised a refund.

Such a dire occasion, where families were subjected to physical abuse from the French police and local gangs, would shed light on the nature of relationships at UEFA. It would emerge that the organisation’s safety consultant in Paris, Zeljko Pavlica, was a relatively new hire and three years earlier, Ceferin had been the best man at his wedding.

If FIFA or any of the other governing bodies that are so influential in the direction of the sport are going to establish trust with the billions of people who follow it, it will have to do better at establishing clear lines of delineation between officials, no matter how removed from the front they appear to be.

Perhaps Infantino will take confidence from his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who was called out by UEFA in 2011 following corruption allegations against FIFA members, only to remain in office for another five years.

Blatter was much loathed but the presidency arguably invites more focus now than it did during even his controversial reign due to Infantino’s desire to “grow the game” in a period where the world has become more polarised. This determination has increased the number of people with an opinion on his work and, in turn, the number who would like to see him fall.

The “division” that FIFA mentioned in its statement on Friday night is not so much between its members but the institution’s leadership and everything that sits below it. If Infantino’s credibility is shattered and nothing is done to bring a proper change in priorities, then the governance of the sport is unlikely to recover.

There are tremendous challenges around delivering this in practice given the differing problems and motivations across continents and federations. Curiously enough, anyone wanting to replace Infantino can certainly learn from him because he has been so supple at playing a political game that has allowed him to build up support.

Perhaps any reluctance from expected candidates reflects how toxic the position has become under its current incumbent.