Donald Trump faced some pushback from what some might consider a surprising source after saying he could potentially move matches scheduled for next year’s World Cup out of liberal-led cities he deems “dangerous.” The president made his authoritarian threat last week while promoting his deployment of military forces to cities with Black Democratic mayors, which he has falsely portrayed as crime-infested hellscapes.
FIFA, the corruption-plagued soccer organization that organizes the World Cup, and its president, Gianni Infantino, have largely bent the knee to Trump ever since his return to office. That’s what made Wednesday’s remarks from a FIFA vice president — who said decisions on where games are played rest solely with the soccer body — seem like a notable hiccup in the FIFA-Trump relationship.
As ESPN reported:
“It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” the soccer body’s vice president Victor Montagliani said Wednesday at a sports business conference in London.
The Canadian president of North American regional soccer body Concacaf said the sport is “bigger” than any current political debate.
“With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans,” Montagliani said in an on-stage interview. “That’s the beauty of our game, is that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.”
During a press scrum at the event, Montagliani conceded that Trump’s words are “a little heavier,” considering he’s the president. But he added that, “from an operational perspective,” moving the games hasn’t been “taken into consideration.” Next year’s World Cup will be played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
And Montagliani went on to reiterate that any decision as to where games will be played is FIFA’s alone, saying “at the end of the day, it’s FIFA’s tournament; FIFA makes those decisions.”
I’ll caution here that Montagliani might not have the final say on this matter, as he is but one man in a massive — and historically, majorly corrupt — organization. So who knows? This time next year, we could be talking about FIFA hosting a match on a divot-laden fairway at one of Trump’s golf courses.
But it certainly sounds like FIFA is, for now, refusing to be a prop in the president’s political charade.
