Welcome to the best FIFA World Cup EVER. The price? Someone else’s soul

July 1, 2026 — 5:00am

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Gianni Infantino has been active on Instagram this past month. His posts (or, more likely, the posts of a social media team possessing an uncanny likeness) number, on average, several a day and take his 4.7 million followers to the chimerical place the FIFA president appears to inhabit.

“Congratulations to @canmnt,” begins the caption on one from Monday morning following Canada’s 1-0 win over South Africa, “on making history and qualifying for the Round of 16 for the first time by winning the first FIFA World Cup Round of 32 game ever!”

It is impossible – I tried – to read this sentence without adopting the voice of a four-year-old child.

This is world football’s great leader, tugging on your trousers to get your attention, because you simply must be informed that “ice-cream tastes the best EVER!” and “that tree is the tallest EVER!” and “Spider-Man does the craziest backflip EVER!”

A few days ago, we also had: “173 goals and counting – a new record in FIFA World Cup history!” (logic says that is bound to happen when you add 50 per cent more teams, but don’t be fooled because this actually has more to do with “excitement and attacking prowess”).

And right before that, a collage of the tournament’s most recognisable players (all the usual suspects): “ONLY FIFA can bring the greatest stars together to shine on one single stage: the world’s biggest stage: the FIFA WORLD CUP 2026!”

Infantino’s Insta is truly fantastical. A perfect package of propaganda dressed up as guileless zeal. All thumbs-ups and high-fives and that jaundiced tinge of moneyed elite.

If he lived in fairytale land – there’s no reason at this point to believe he resides anywhere else – he might be Puss in Boots. Not the cute version from Shrek, but still a protagonist specialising in trickery and deceit to gain power and wealth.

And this is where the audience is thrown. Because if Infantino is not really a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald