Why Europe's negative reaction to Trump's intervention in the World Cup does not worry the FIFA president

The World Cup draw, during which Trump received the first FIFA Peace Prize, felt like the culmination of two years in which Infantino cultivated a close relationship with the US president. "You can always count, Mr. President, on my support, on the support of the entire football community, to help you bring peace and prosperity to the entire world," Infantino told Trump when presenting the award. In December, human rights group FairSquare filed a complaint with FIFA's ethics committee alleging that Infantino violated the body's rules on political neutrality when creating the award. Without receiving a response, last month 50 members of the European Parliament sent a new letter to the ethics committee demanding action. As in many situations involving FIFA, there was no response. So far, Trump has not attended a single World Cup match. But he made his presence felt by taking responsibility for Balogun's situation. It was yet another example of how football can take a back seat in the political game. We had already seen this happen with Somali referee Omar Artan. Artan was denied entry to the US by immigration agents, and Infantino was accused of losing control of the World Cup itself. However, when he was questioned by the press last month — for the first time in more than three years — his response was perfunctory at best. "Just, you know, calm down, relax," Infantino said of Artan's situation. This World Cup has always been surrounded by suspicion and controversy — and there have rarely been moments of transparency. Another example was the five hours of uncertainty last Friday, when FIFA first decided to change the start time of the round of 16 match between England and Mexico and then backtracked, pretending that nothing had happened. Balogun's situation follows the same script: a decision communicated without any justification. Football simply receives information about a decision and needs to comply with it. Controversies behind the scenes of the World Cup FairSquare believes that only 10 people were involved in the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize and that the decision was not taken by the FIFA Council. Getty Images via BBC If we were to list all the recent football controversies, this article would be quite long. But let's consider the decision process for hosting the 2030 and 2034 World Cups two years ago, something that often goes unnoticed. It was decided that the 2030 edition would be held on three continents — Africa, Europe and South America. This meant that the 2034 tournament would have to be held in Asia or Oceania. With no real competition, this all but guaranteed that Saudi Arabia (in the far west of Asia)—a country facing questions about its human rights record—would be the host. Saudi Arabia and FIFA, under Infantino's management, today have a close relationship. READ ALSO: FIFA president denies interfering in decision that removed a US player's red card Trump received and took to FIFA accusations without evidence against Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, says NYT Trump admits that he asked FIFA to review red card and criticizes Brazilian referee: 'A little suspicious' See what Trump said about red card and Brazilian referee The Norwegian football federation abstained and argued that the candidacy process weakened FIFA's "reforms for good governance" and cast doubt "trust in FIFA". Another example is the Club World Cup — which for some would be a kind of unwanted summer tournament created by FIFA to take a slice of the clubs' revenue. Sergio Marchi, president of global players' union Fifpro, said last year that the tournament was created "without dialogue, sensitivity and respect". And now we have the Balogun case. "Football must never become a space for political power", wrote former FIFA president Sepp Blatter in X. It is worth remembering that Blatter was forced to leave the FIFA presidency after a corruption scandal — being replaced by Infantino in 2016. Uefa against Infantino? UEFA — the entity that represents European football — entered the controversy on Tuesday (07/07) by expressing strong opposition to the decision on Balogun. European football's governing body said FIFA had "crossed a red line" and described the move as an "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision". This is not the first time that UEFA has come into conflict with FIFA. In May 2025, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin led a group of European delegates who walked out of sessions during a break at the FIFA Congress. Infantino was on a diplomatic trip through the Middle East alongside Trump and arrived two hours and 17 minutes late. UEFA also tried to reinforce its political position during the World Cup. As soon as referee Artan landed back home in Somalia last month, UEFA announced that he had been invited to officiate the UEFA Super Cup game between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa on 12 August. And throughout this year, UEFA has been keen to highlight how cheap Euro 2028 tickets are compared to World Cup tickets. The entity will not introduce hydration breaks or red cards for players who cover their mouths — two FIFA innovations adopted in the current World Cup. But it is worth mentioning that Infantino himself came from UEFA. For many years, he was responsible for presenting the Champions League draws. Perhaps he is not exactly persona non grata in the European confederation — he spoke at the UEFA Congress in February — but there are obvious frictions. Taking all this into account, one would expect that Infantino's position could be at risk. On the contrary. Infantino is popular with many federations around the world — and much of this is due to FIFA's promotion of football. Infantino's FIFA Forward program has funded football projects across the planet and created opportunities through the expansion of the World Cup. The Cup now has 16 additional teams — the vast majority of them from smaller confederations. Europe received only three of the additional vacancies. This World Cup showed that the Asian and Concacaf teams still need to improve a lot to be competitive. But Infantino offered a chance to nations that previously had little hope of playing in a World Cup, such as Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan. Despite all the criticism of the 48-team format, it will encourage nations with less tradition to develop their football and become stronger — and isn't that something positive for the sport around the world? In fact, there is a problem. Tournaments like the World Cup, with their exorbitant ticket prices, finance these projects. This year, FIFA expects to raise US$9 billion (around R$46 billion). UEFA may oppose much of what FIFA and Infantino represent, but European football is the richest in sport and can largely finance itself. The rest of football depends on Infantino and the money FIFA generates. FIFA is made up of 211 countries. Each of them has the right to one vote in the election of the entity's presidency, with 106 votes needed to win an election. Let's analyze these numbers. In April, Conmebol — the South American confederation — stated that its 10 countries would support Infantino. Three weeks later, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed the unanimous support of its 54 associations. Shortly afterwards, the 47 nations of the Asian Football Confederation followed suit. With 111 votes, Infantino is already unbeatable. Even if UEFA believes it can put together a viable opposition candidate, the race already appears to be decided. Infantino was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023. It would take something truly extraordinary for someone to run against him in 2027.