As President Donald Trump presented the World Cup trophy to Spain at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the man in charge of world football’s governing body, Fifa, seemed untouched by the competition’s controversies.
In a break with protocol, the final was staged with a glitzy Super Bowl-style half-time show – at 27 minutes and 22 seconds, it was the longest in World Cup history.
The show included a performances from K-Pop super-group BTS, Robbie Williams in a bedazzled blue tracksuit and Madonna, who entered the stadium in a car driven by Brazilian greats Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. After the final whistle, the winning team, was issued with NFL-style winners’ rings. Trump, meanwhile, lingered awkwardly in frame as Spain lifted the trophy – despite Infantino’s apparent attempts to usher him away.
All this less than a fortnight after Fifa caused controversy around the world by suspending Folarin Balogun’s red-card ban under pressure from the White House.
But the world of football has shown how little the affair has cost the man at the top.
More than 200 of Fifa’s 211 member associations have already endorsed Gianni Infantino for a fourth term as president.
A few European federations are holding out, Germany the most prominent among them, but Infantino is the only candidate, the vote is not until next March, and the result is not seriously in doubt.
The associations lining up behind him are the ones best placed to hold him to account. Some reports say they were leaned on from inside Fifa to declare early, the kind of pressure Fifa’s own ethics code is supposed to forbid.
Crossing a line
European foootball’s governing body, Uefa, called the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable”, saying Fifa had “crossed a red line”.
Even Sepp Blatter waded in: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” posted the former Fifa president, whose own reign ended amid a corruption scandal and who remains banned from football by Fifa.
When Sepp Blatter can claim the moral high ground, there’s a problem.
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