By Iain Axon
July 6 (Reuters) – Human rights group FairSquare says U.S. President Donald Trump’s intervention over Folarin Balogun’s red-card ban should be investigated as a breach of FIFA’s rules on political neutrality and could mark the beginning of the end of Gianni Infantino’s presidency.
Trump confirmed on Monday that he had contacted Infantino over the red card, which was set to rule Balogun out of the U.S. team’s World Cup last-16 match against Belgium until the punishment was suspended by FIFA’s disciplinary committee on Sunday.
Infantino, who has run the global governing body since 2016, said in a statement that the disciplinary body was independent and he had no involvement in the decision that freed Balogun to play in the match later on Monday.
FairSquare, a non-profit organisation specialising in sports and human rights, believes FIFA’s increasing political alignment has been an issue going back to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“I don’t think there’s any question they’ve become far too politically aligned,” Nicholas McGeehan, director and co-founder of FairSquare, told Reuters.
“I think that the politicisation, probably on account of how Trump carries on, has become most obviously blatantly problematic (in the U.S.). But I think this is a trend that that has come into force … since Infantino came to power, for sure.”
Fifty members of the European Parliament wrote to FIFA’s ethics committee this month backing FairSquare’s complaint against Infantino over his support for Trump’s political agenda, including the award of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to the U.S. President.
“I think if we continue to see those types of political interventions, that’s going to put real pressure on Infantino,” McGeehan said.
“I think Infantino is a symptom of the problem. He’s a symptom of an organisation that has a rotten governance structure.
“(There’s a general understanding that) it’s dysfunctional to the point where it can never be reformed. And I think the relationship with Trump is probably what sort of catalysed that understanding.”
“FATAL MISSTEP” FOR INFANTINO
McGeehan said he thought the red card issue might turn out to be a “fatal misstep” for Infantino, who has already announced that he will stand for another four-year term as FIFA president next March.
“People are outraged when the sort of the reputation of FIFA is smeared,” he said.
“What I think you’ll find is that football administrators get seriously exercised when you start to jeopardize the integrity of the game.
“We are definitely going to ask for an investigation into the circumstances of this. If there is a quid pro quo at work here, then that is a very clear violation of (FIFA’s) code of ethics.”
In 2015, FairSquare called for the resignation of Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter before he stepped down in the midst of a major FIFA corruption scandal.
McGeehan said opinion within the game could be similarly turning against Infantino.
“I think the sharks are probably circling,” he said. “He’s made far too many very serious missteps.
“And when you have a situation when you’ve got European lawmakers wading into debate about presidential misconduct, you have a problem.”
(Reporting by Iain Axon, writing by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Ed Osmond)
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