A stadium, a microphone, and no answer
Katowice, Saturday afternoon. The Under-20 Women’s World Cup was about to begin, Poland were about to play Argentina, and Gianni Infantino wanted to talk about football.
Only football. Sky News asked the FIFA president about his future as he arrived at the ground, and he produced a sentence engineered to say nothing at all. “There will be a lot to say, but there will be a right place and a right time to say this. It’s not today, it’s not here, but here and today, we are enjoying football.”
Then came the follow-ups. Had he considered stepping down? No reply. Would he still stand for a fourth term next year? No reply to that either. Infantino kept walking, adding only that FIFA would keep working “to give every corner of the world a chance, an opportunity, a dignity” through the game.
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Ten years in charge, and the ground is moving
Infantino is 56. He has run world football’s governing body since 26 February 2016, his current mandate expires in 2027, and the campaign he has already declared would carry him through to 2031. Fifteen years in the same chair.
None of that looked seriously in doubt until FIFA floated the idea of selling stakes in the World Cup to private investors. The proposal was abandoned. The anger it created was not. National associations spread across several confederations have since called publicly for his resignation or for a new name at the top of the building.
UEFA pushed hardest. Europe’s governing body and a group of allied federations drew up plans to boycott this very tournament in Poland, and stood down only once FIFA gave assurances that the private equity route would not be reopened.
The right time, whenever that is
So the competition kicked off on schedule in Katowice, with the man at the centre of the argument standing in the middle of it, promising a right place and a right time without naming either.
The election is next year. The federations pushing for his exit are working to a calendar. On Saturday, Infantino had a match to watch.
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