Under-fire FIFA president Gianni Infantino has taken the governing body to a “whole new level” which has left his critics “jealous”, according to Andrew Giuliani, who was executive director for the White House Task Force on the 2026 World Cup.
New Zealand’s football federation became the latest organization to withdraw its support for the Infantino’s re-election next year as he continues to lose global support over his aborted plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors.
European governing body UEFA, the North and Central American confederation CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had already made it clear Infantino had lost their confidence, while a number of individual associations – including England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland – have also confirmed they will not back the president.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and South American governing body CONMEBOL have, though, both endorsed Infantino to win a fourth presidential term at the FIFA Congress in March.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has warned FIFA would be making a “terrible mistake” if it got rid of Infantino.
Giuliani – son of former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – claimed anyone who wanted Infantino removed “needs to get their head examined”.
“It’s politics. I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted President Trump from a political perspective. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted other people,” Giuliani told The Athletic.
“People are jealous when people are very high achievers – and what Gianni Infantino has done for FIFA is he’s taken them to a whole new level that probably they didn’t think was possible.
“You’ve got to remember, this is the first World Cup that Gianni Infantino was president for landing, right? He inherited the Russia and Qatar World Cups, and did a good job with those, but this is the first one. It’s his vision on this.
“What I’ll tell you is that for any soccer confederation or football federation president who is thinking about not voting for Gianni Infantino, it would probably be one of the most foolish decisions of your professional life.
“This guy literally just put on the largest global sporting event ever without any incident, making over four times the revenue of the last World Cup, and you’re thinking of ousting him.
“If Gianni Infantino doesn’t get re-elected unanimously, then whoever voted against him needs to get their head examined.”
Infantino apologized for his proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company to run the commercial and operational aspects of FIFA’s tournaments, with an idea to sell off around 20% to private investors – including a company headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The proposal was scrapped and Giuliani added: “Look, we are all human beings, and I think it’s one of those things where sport has become monetised and commercialised.
“I would just say that you have got to look at Gianni’s full body of work and to also realize that he’s always trying to improve his organisation, and I think that’s the thing.
“Just because you’re always trying to improve doesn’t mean that you’re not going to take a misstep here or there, right? As a human being, it happens, but I would look at the body of work and say this is the guy I would want leading.”