1. The 2026 World Cup kicked off on Saturday with an embarrassing act just before the draw in Washington. FIFA presented the Peace Prize to Donald Trump. It's an award created specifically to spite the US president. Trump doesn't have the Nobel Peace Prize—yet—but UEFA is giving him this consolation prize to nibble on. It's just another chapter in Gianni Infantino's subservient role, as he grovels before power in order to, paradoxically, gain even more. Where does this connection between the White House and the FIFA president come from? It sounds like the beginning of a novel that started fifteen years ago, but it's not fiction.
2. December 2, 2010. For the first and last time, FIFA officially announced the hosts of two World Cups simultaneously. In Zurich, in secret ballots, Russia won the 2018 World Cup, and Qatar, surprisingly, was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. The Arab country triumphed over the United States, who had them on the ropes. Bill Clinton, who was the president of the U.S. Organizing Committee, arrived at his hotel furious. He smashed windows in his room, destroyed furniture, and the Swiss police had to intervene. Upon his return to the United States, Clinton urged the New York Attorney General's office to look for "little things" that would undermine Qatar's bid. They didn't know how to lose, and thus, after years of investigation, the FIFA scandal was born.
3. May 27, 2015. Plainclothes Swiss police entered the rooms of the Baur au Lac Hotel with a master key and arrested seven FIFA members who had attended the Zurich congress to re-elect Joseph Blatter as head of the organization. The detainees were presidents of federations from Central and South America, whom the United States Department of Justice accused of bribery, racketeering, and money laundering. Six of these seven members were extradited to the United States, beginning a legal saga that extended to many other officials—27 defendants in total—and which generally ended in a series of minor incidents and lenient sentences. In fact, many years later, those officials who had been imprisoned in the United States sued the United States and won their cases because the courts determined that their arrests were illegal. The 2022 World Cup was held in Qatar, and the vote-buying allegations were never proven, with Messi leading Argentina to victory.
4. But as a result of that avalanche of arrests in 2015, instigated by Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney General, two other things happened at FIFA. On June 3 of that same year, amidst the scandal, Joseph Blatter resigned as president, and Gianni Infantino, a Swiss lawyer, won the 2016 elections. In the second round, he secured 115 votes out of a total of 207. US diplomacy, with its alliance with Qatar, its man at the helm of world football, had one objective: to ensure that the organization of the World Cup would not slip through the US fingers again. And so it was done. Here came the second measure. On June 13, 2018, the voting to choose the World Cup host was conducted, in the name of transparency, by a show of hands. There was no longer a secret ballot, and with hands raised and having their faces taken, no one dared to offend Donald Trump. The United States, Mexico, and Canada were chosen as the host countries for his first term, and the final will be played in New York with him, once again, in the White House. Everything in order, Gianni. And, by the way, who has recently joined FIFA's traditional sponsors—Adidas, Visa, and Coca-Cola? Qatar. It all stays in the family. Herein lies the connection with Infantino. This is how geopolitics is shaped through the business of football.
