As the world reeled from the coronavirus crisis in the fall of 2020, the president of soccer’s world governing body, Gianni Infantino, headed to Rome for an audience with Italy’s prime minister.
Wearing masks and bumping elbows, Mr Infantino, the FIFA president, and the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, greeted each other in front of reporters before disappearing with the president of the Italian football federation into one of the ornate state rooms of the 16th – Century Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the Italian leader.
Mr Infantino then explained that they had talked about football’s path to recovery from the pandemic shutdown. He made no mention of the other pressing matter he had come to discuss.
Away from the television cameras, Mr Infantino surprised Italians by revealing himself to be the tar in a Saudi bid to stage soccer’s biggest tournament, the World Cup. Saudi Arabia had already secured Egypt’s support, the FIFA president told Italian officials, and was now looking for a European partner for a unique tournament to be held on three continents in 2030. Italy, he said, could be that partner. .
Mr. Conte listened politely, but he would have known that such a partnership was politically impossible: Italy had strained relations with Egypt over the brutal killing of a young Italian graduate student in Cairo in 2016, and there was ongoing unease across Europe about the Saudi Arabia’s role in the 2018 assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Italian reaction to Mr Infantino’s proposal was at first “cautious and within hours negative”, said Pietro Benassi, who was the prime minister’s senior diplomatic adviser. The country said no.
Three years later, Saudi Arabia would get its prize anyway. On October 31, after a swift process that surprised its members, FIFA confirmed that Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the 2034 World Cup. Within hours, Mr Infantino hinted in a post on social media that his status as host was a done deal and other Gulf rulers hailed it as “Victory of the Arabs” — even though the official vote was almost a year away.
For many in football, Mr Infantino’s advocacy of Saudi Arabia was nothing new. In the years since his visit to Rome, he had also promoted the idea of co-organizing the Saudis in Greece. defended Saudi Arabia’s multimillion-dollar investment in soccer. and helped shepherd rule changes that all but assured the kingdom would end with the World Cup.
His efforts were hardly clandestine. But they have left many in football concerned about Mr Infantino’s motives and wondering whether he is using his position to prioritize the interests of FIFA or those of a friendly partner who is using his wealth to influence the sport.
“How can we check that game development and game values lead the way and not personal relationships?” said Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Association and a critic of FIFA’s governance.
FIFA, through a spokesman, responded to questions about Mr Infantino’s actions on behalf of the president and said nothing improper was done to ensure the World Cup went to a preferred candidate. “The selection of FIFA World Cup venues is done through an open and transparent bidding process,” the spokesman said, adding that Mr Infantino had not “triggered or initiated” discussions about Saudi Arabia’s bid with potential partners.
However, the speed and secrecy with which FIFA handled the hosting rights for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments has brought fresh criticism of the way football is run and how the organisation’s most consequential decisions are now made by a small group of top executives. , led by Mr. Infantino, and then sealed by a flexible board of directors.
“What is incredible is that this is the new FIFA,” said Miguel Maduro, the first head of government appointed by Mr Infantino amid promises of transparency and ethical reforms. “However, they are basically going back to the same old way of awarding World Cups.”
Saudi Arabia has never hidden its desire to host one. Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Arabian state has given sports a prominent role in efforts to project a new image of the country: vibrant, modern, open. Billions have been spent on boxing matches, Formula 1 motor racing, the LIV Golf Tour and, more recently, to attract some of the world’s most famous soccer stars to Saudi Arabia’s domestic league.
The biggest prize, though, has always been the World Cup. And in Mr. Infantino, Saudi Arabia has found an enthusiastic ally. In many ways, the kingdom’s ambitions merged with his own as he sought to create new legacy-defining events and projects, all of which would require significant inflows of new capital.
In 2018, for example, Mr Infantino stunned FIFA board members by asking for permission to close a deal for new competitions with investors whose identities he declined to reveal. (After the deal collapsed, it emerged that the group behind the bid, SoftBank, counted Saudi Arabia among its biggest backers.) Three years later, Mr Infantino angered many in soccer by saying FIFA would consider a proposal — offered by the Saudi Arabian federation — to host the World Cup every two years. (The unpopular idea was scrapped after a furious backlash.)
Despite these setbacks, the relationship between Mr. Infantino and Saudi Arabia grew closer. He has often promoted his events on social media and in 2021 he starred video released by the Ministry of Sports. In August 2022, he and Prince Mohammed shared a suite at a boxing match in Jeddah. Months later, the FIFA president returned the favor at the opening match of the World Cup in Qatar. Just last month, the men were photographed sitting side by side at yet another event in Riyadh.
“It’s meant to send a message,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group. “It’s like a visual symbol of putting your thumb on the scale.”
At the same time, Mr Infantino also had private diplomacy that benefited Saudi Arabia’s World Cup ambitions.
After Italy passed on the partnership in a World Cup bid, Saudi Arabia approached Greece with the offer and Mr Infantino discussed the idea with the Greek prime minister on the sidelines of a UN meeting in September 2021. But that idea was later dropped. Morocco joining forces with Spain and Portugal in a potentially unbeaten bid for the 2030 World Cup.
Instead, Saudi Arabia changed its focus. Realizing that the Spain-Portugal-Morocco bid would likely beat an unlikely four-nation bid from South America, the Saudis realized they could take advantage of FIFA rules that would prevent countries from Europe and Africa from contesting the tournament 2034 when this bidding process started.
FIFA then made two more strange moves.
The first three matches of the 2030 World Cup, it was suddenly announced, will be held in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay as part of the centenary celebrations of the World Cup. (The first World Cup was played in Uruguay in 1930.) That brought South America into the Portugal-Spain-Morocco bid — and eliminated another continent from eligible 2034 bidders.
But with the 2030 hosts sorted, FIFA unexpectedly said it was bringing forward the bidding process for the 2034 tournament by at least three years, limiting the countries that could bid for it in ways that favored Saudi Arabia’s bid and planned to complete it in What for most countries represented an impossible timetable: Interested nations were given only 25 days to express their intent and only a few more weeks to submit formal bids, which usually require significant government support.
Mr Infantino claimed there had been “broad consultation” on the decision. But Ms Klaveness, the Norwegian federation president, said she only found out when the official news release was released and Football Australia’s chief executive said the changes “surprised us a bit”.
Among those not surprised? Saudi Arabia. Within minutes, a statement was released, attributed to Prince Mohammed, saying he would make a bid for 2034. Hours later, the head of Asian football said Saudi Arabia’s bid would have the full support of all its members.
Days later, Mr. Infantino left little doubt about the outcome he favored. At a summit of Asian soccer officials in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and again during an online meeting of many of the same leaders a week later, the FIFA president urged the Asian confederation — which includes Australia — “to be united for the 2034 World Cup.” The message was not clear. But it was taken.
Indonesia, which only a week earlier had spoken of a bid, withdrew its plan. Australia, the only remaining potential bidder, pulled out hours before the deadline. Its top official, James Johnson, later said his country had concluded that any proposal had no chance against an opponent with such strong public support. “The numbers,” he said, “are stacked against us.”
