Arya News - Fifa president Gianni Infantino was delayed arriving at the body’s annual Congress after joining US President Trump on his tour of the Middle East
There had already been growing unrest within European football administration about the general direction of Fifa, and how so many key decisions seem to be taken without wider consultation. Among them are calls on the newly expanded Club World Cup and the highly controversial voting processes for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.
While Infantino eventually arrived in Asuncion and gave hurried apologies before his rushed keynote speech, numerous officials were left furious. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin led a delegation of European Council members in deciding to walk out after the break, leaving the sight of so many empty seats for the rest of Congress. The Council is Fifa’s highest body, and supposed to act as the body’s main check and balance.
The Norwegian federation added that its delegation “chose to leave the Congress venue together with several European colleagues at 2pm as initially planned” – by the previous time schedule – “for a respectful departure”.
Infantino later defended his trip, insisting it was crucial “to represent football” in “important discussions” with “world leaders in politics and economy”, not to mention those central to the hosting of the 2026 (USA, Mexico and Canada) and 2034 World Cups (Saudi Arabia). But some officials were sceptical that the extended time was merely down to his personal political agenda.
There was also a feeling that this went against the Fifa president’s very job description, since he is essentially supposed to serve the members who vote him in.
FA chair Debbie Hewitt joined the walkout (Martin Rickett/PA)
A Uefa spokesperson told The Independent : “The last minute changes to the timings of the Fifa Congress are deeply regrettable. The Fifa Congress is one of the most important meetings in world football, where all the 211 nations in the world’s game gather to discuss issues that affect the sport right across the world.
“Our hosts, the Paraguay FA and our partners at Conmebol, had gone to considerable effort to accommodate so many delegates and we thank them for their hospitality. But to have the timetable changed at the last minute for what appears to be simply to accommodate private political interests, does the game no service and appears to put its interests second.
“We are all in post to serve football; from the streets to the podium, and Uefa members of the Fifa Council felt the need on this occasion to make a point that the game comes first and to leave as originally scheduled.”
The English FA did not comment.
There was further difficulty for Infantino when a representative of the Palestine FA, Susan Shalabi, took the floor to admonish the governing body for continuously postponing a decision on their proposal that Israel should be banned for football over the claim the country has gone against Fifa statutes by staging football matches on illegally occupied land.
Some senior figures feel the issue is going to be continuously put off due to the political sensitivity, as well as the very idea that a football federation would take a decision of this nature before international bodies like the United Nations. It is also where Infantino’s relationship with Trump is seen as potentially influential, given the US president’s generally pro-Israel policy on Gaza.
The Norwegian FA’s secretary general, Karl-Petter Loken, stayed behind to express his federation’s support for the case of the Palestinian FA.