“Campione, campione, olé, olé, olé,” he boomed in the Swiss hotel bar. After the Blatter era, the new president of FIFA, the governing body of world football, took office. Smiling Gianni Infantino was applauded by UEFA lobbyists. “Your” Gianni.
February 26, 2016 was the end of a day full of hours of meetings at the FIFA Congress. Of course, with the presidential election, which is very important. UEFA strategists remained in the background for days, but at the bar they shared their hand-to-hand stories of victory.
The humiliations of the Blatter era were over, or so they thought. UEFA was now at work, a new era was about to begin.
infantino ‘bubbles’
However, soon after his initial election, less positive tones were heard about Infantino. Swiss professor Mark Pieth sounded the alarm. Pieth was the architect of reform within FIFA.
In Blatter’s time, he devised a system of independent overseers who had to inspect and purge the agency from within. It was the reform that led to Blatter’s own downfall.
Pieth soon saw that the Infantino was starting to look like his predecessor. “Burning,” as Pieth said three months after the election.
Now we are more than seven years later. After the much-discussed World Cup held in Qatar, the football world is once again preparing for the presidential elections. Infantino’s second re-election. And again, he’s the only candidate.
Now is a good time to return to Pieth for an interim report on Infantino. The Swiss professor gives a harsh assessment: “I saw some signs of corruption while working for FIFA. Moving from Blatter to Infantino did not lessen my concerns. To be honest, I actually think it is.” Worse still, Blatter.”
“I would describe Blatter as the ‘patron’ of a company. A man who wants power, influence and, of course, money. Infantino is the supreme. He wants to get rich in much less time, he wants absolute power, and I would compare that to an autocrat.”
empty words
According to Pieth, transparency, good governance and independence are empty concepts if the right people are not deployed in the right places. “It’s very easy to put things down on paper, but much more difficult to put them into practice. You do that by appointing people to enforce the rules and make it really happen.”
He was influenced by the Ethics Committee’s veteran supervisors Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert, who ended the careers of Blatter and former UEFA President Michel Platini. However, these superiors were replaced by Infantino.
“Don’t be afraid of brave people”
“I understand that they are afraid of people who dare to erase Blatter and Platini from the football world. That’s what the ethics committee was there for,” says Pieth. “Infantino and his friends replaced all these independent people with their friends, let’s say: less competent people.”
Pieth cites Colombian Maria Claudia Rojas and Greek Vassilios Skouris, who should lead the harassment investigation. “They are really unprofessional in this field and are too dependent on the organization’s legal support,” she explains. “The woman who now has to sort out the harassment doesn’t seem to even speak English, she.”
Infantino remains a suspect in a criminal investigation as he runs for reelection for a second time. The Swiss judiciary suspects him of trying to influence the police investigation into corruption in international football.
The reason for this is a secret meeting between Infantino and Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber in a hotel. Lauber was the Swiss leader of the investigation that led to Sepp Blatter’s downfall, conducted in collaboration with the FBI.
cleared by regulators
Blatter left before he was officially suspected. Even as a suspect, Infantino had no intention of pursuing the case. He was also exonerated by FIFA’s internal regulators. It was announced by Maria Claudia Rojas, whom she appointed in July 2020, shortly after the Swiss judiciary’s announcement. According to Rojas, even a temporary suspension was not necessary.
“Of course I was surprised that he was acquitted so quickly. First, it could be expected that Swiss prosecutors would want to know what they would find. Especially as forensic investigations continue. It wasn’t necessary to make a decision in a matter of days,” says Pieth.
Support from KNVB
Under the Blatter administration, national unions still had the opportunity to cast a blank ballot in re-election. It’s a way of silently protesting even when the opponent is not a candidate. Infantino’s previous re-election had changed the process. A round of applause was enough. The opposition has become completely invisible.
Whether voting or applause at the congress in Rwanda; Switzerland can count on the support of the KNVB.
President Just Spee said at Algemeen Dagblad last week that Infantino has “reasonable ideas” on how FIFA should be run. “You can say no out loud, but then what? Now you are sitting at the table and can have influence. That’s the best thing for Dutch football.”
NOS requested a meeting with the KNVB this week to discuss support for Infantino, but this was declined by an information officer.
“I think a little more courage and valor can sometimes be good,” Professor Pieth said to the flip side of Dutch football managers.
“Infantino deceived the European federations by not allowing them to use their captain’s armbands at the World Cup in Qatar. And they reluctantly agreed.” explains. “European federations have much more power than is thought. They could have put pressure on FIFA, but they came out as cowards.”
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
