FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended his controversial alliance with Donald Trump as “critical” for the success of the World Cup.
The US leader has been lavished with praise by the head of football’s world governing body, which has been reciprocated in speeches in recent weeks highlighting upcoming FIFA events in the United States.
After attending a speech in Miami last week, where Mr Trump claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a “dictator”, Mr Infantino praised him for promoting a message of “peace and unity”.
Arriving in Northern Ireland for meetings on Friday night, Mr Infantino opened the door to Russia’s eventual return from a FIFA ban by saying: “We want to have all the countries playing.”
Mr Infantino declined to discuss the US president banning diversity, equity and inclusion which are often promoted as central missions to FIFA.
But he was more willing to justify spending so much time with Mr Trump – pointing to the new 32-team men’s Club World Cup being in the US this summer and the expanded 48-country men’s World Cup in 2026.
“I think it is absolutely crucial for the success of a World Cup to have a close relationship with the president,” Mr Infantino said in Hollywood, Northern Ireland.
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One of Mr Trump’s central sports policies is ordering sports to not allow transgender women to compete in women’s sport – threatening to block visas.
FIFA has not followed sports, including athletics and swimming, in adopting the same ban, saying for two years that a review of the gender eligibility policy is ongoing.
When Sky News asked about the issue on Friday night, Mr Infantino was dragged off by a member of his media team to check into his hotel ahead of meetings of the International Football Association Board.
This was a rare chance to question Mr Infantino, who has not held a news conference in the last year, and the first chance to discuss the contentious process that saw Saudi Arabia awarded the 2034 World Cup in December last year.
Mr Infantino was asked about Saudi Arabia not being a democracy and discriminatory laws counter to FIFA’s statutes, including criminalising same-sex relations.
The 211 football associations were unable to express any dissent in the unopposed contest with a vote replaced by an approval by acclamation.
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‘We bring the world together’
Mr Infantino said: “There was a congress decision, uniting the entire world. I think it was a very positive step for football, bringing, in eight years, football all over the world, hosting everyone.
“Football is the game of everyone. Everyone loves football. It’s the number one sport in the world.
“We have to be bringing everyone on the table. We will go to North America, now we go to South America, go to Africa, we’ll go to Europe [for the 2030 World Cup].
“We’ll go back to Asia [for 2034]. The FIFA Congress approved that. It was done after an in-depth report on all this. We unite the world.
“We bring the world together and we make sure that football is played everywhere, and football is loved everywhere.
“We give opportunities to people, for people to meet each other and to come together.”
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Mr Infantino is hoping for Russia’s eventual return to football after being banned following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But he said there had been no request from Mr Trump, who has pursued a peace deal with Vladimir Putin that has largely cut out Ukraine.
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“We all hope that peace talks will be successful, because I think it is important that we support it for the world, much more than for football, that we have peace,” Mr Infantino said.
“If there is a little role that football can play, once peace is there, then of course, we’ll play our role, and we look forward that all countries in the world can play football.”
