How the Trump factor finally turned the soccer world against Infantino

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It has been soccer’s epiphany – its moment to recognise that its soul is worth saving.

A hellish week for Gianni Infantino, whose grand scheme to carve up the World Cup promised to benefit only the private equity boys and his own bank balance, has been a happy one for anybody calling out his cupidity.

This time, the grenades were thrown inside his own building. No sooner did Carlos Cordeiro, his long-time advisor, lambast his shabby back-room plot with Donald Trump’s associates as a “bad deal” than Kevin Lamour, FIFA’s chief operating officer, claimed staff had been “deceived”.

The global game has unearthed, albeit belatedly, a few big shots with a spine.

The change in tone is staggering. Once, an organisation such as UEFA would issue only cold, bureaucratic statements. But its latest bulletin, accusing Infantino of seeking to sell off the “family silver” and excoriating the “faceless individuals” who do his bidding, comes dripping in sulphuric acid.

It reflects not just the deep disdain of UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin for how his opposite number in Zurich operates, but the righteous indignation that Infantino’s arrogance has unleashed.

While it is rare for soccer to speak as one on any subject, the sheer conceit of a preening Swiss bureaucrat devoid of charm or wit or empathy has united 143........

© The Age