Will Trump Save Infantino’s Job? Official Denies Considering Helping FIFA Chief.

Topline

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is reportedly racing to secure his future with soccer’s governing body after a plan to privatize and sell a portion of the World Cup spectacularly backfired last week—but the Trump administration says it isn’t part of the plan to save his job despite reporting Monday morning suggesting the White House could lend a hand.

Key Facts

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

How much support he loses. More than 200 of FIFA’s 211 member associations had formally endorsed Infantino for another term before the investment plan. While his European supporters are backing off, he remains popular in Africa, South America and parts of Asia despite the Western revolt, per the Guardian. He needs 106 votes to win reelection, meaning he can lose all 55 votes of Europe's UEFA—and all of 35 of North and Central America's CONCACAF—and still be reelected. So far, nobody has stepped up to run against him, but the Guardian reported UEFA is considering presenting its own candidate.

TANGENT

Until recently, Infantino was undeniably popular among national association executives. He has grown his support among member associations since he was initially elected a decade ago by substantially increasing FIFA's revenue, expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams and positioning himself as a champion of "football development" in smaller, less wealthy countries. For the last several months, he's been lobbying hard for support of his reelection in March. At the FIFA Congress in May, he promised to increase team distributions by 20% to at least $2.7 billion over the next four years, which Reuters reported is particularly influential in securing the sport of smaller nations like Vanuatu and Bhutan, which receive millions of dollars in FIFA development grants. He's particularly popular among members of Africa's CAF (54 votes) and South America's CONMEBOL (10 votes), and is generally liked by Oceania's OFC (11 votes) and Asia's AFC (46 votes), though the latter did criticize his World Cup privatization plan.

Key background

Click here to read article