Fifa: Gianni Infantino aims for re-election and backs down on the World Cup every two years

Gianni Infantino as a unifier: in front of a divided football planet, the president of Fifa announced Thursday in Doha that he would seek re-election in 2023, backing down on the flammable biennial World Cup project and pleading for Qatar's "progress" on human rights in sight of the 2022 World Cup.

Taking advantage of the body's annual congress, on the eve of Friday's draw for the World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18), the Italian-Swiss leader tried to defuse several hot topics, starting with the proposal aimed at increasing the frequency of football's premier event from four to two years.

"Fifa has never proposed a biennial World Cup" but only studied its "feasibility", nuanced Infantino, who had however long defended this idea in recent months.

But the front of the refusal, going from Europe (UEFA) to South America (Conmebol) via associations of clubs or supporters, has apparently pushed the boss of Fifa to now call on the "compromise" on the reform of the international calendar by 2024.

The leading polyglot, in office since 2016, closed this 72nd Congress, formalizing his candidacy in 2023 for a third and final four-year term to applause.

Elected in 2016 with the promise of "restoring the image of Fifa" mired in a global corruption scandal, Infantino has so far no declared major opponent.

Record revenues

The leader, targeted since July 2020 by criminal proceedings for having secretly met the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Swiss Confederation, has his economic record on his side.

Fifa predicts record turnover of 7 billion dollars (6.3 billion euros) over the four-year cycle ending in 2022, more than expected, thanks to the next World Cup .

And, for him, the time is not for divisive proposals: even if the reform of the international male and female calendar remains a pressing issue, Fifa had not included it on the agenda of its Congress.

Infantino only mentioned on Thursday that the Club World Cup, which Fifa once wanted to expand to 24 clubs (against 8 today), would be part of the discussions.

Some are talking about a return to the Confederations Cup, a mini-tournament with eight selections played between 1992 and 2019, or an expansion to American teams in the League of Nations, created in 2018 by UEFA.

Eight months before the 2022 World Cup, the boss of Fifa also faced controversy over the rights of women and LGBT people, or controversies over the status of migrant workers employed on construction sites in Qatar...

"Injured migrant workers or the families of those who died in the preparation for the World Cup must be taken into account", lambasted Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian federation, during an offensive and noticed speech.

Qatar “exemplary” according to Infantino

Insisting on Qatar's "progress" in human rights, Infantino responded by assuring that the work done by Doha on this subject was "exemplary".

"Of course not everything is perfect, of course it's not paradise, but no country is paradise," he said.

From 2016, the emirate abolished the "kafala", a sponsorship system making employees quasi-properties of their employer, and introduced in 2020 a minimum hourly wage (at $1.30 today).

Qatar has done more than any other country in the region, authorities say.

Infantino also urged the belligerents in Ukraine to "engage in dialogue" and recalled that Fifa had excluded the Russian selection from the race for the World Cup-2022.

"It was not an easy decision (...) but it had to be taken," said the boss of Fifa.

Some voices, such as Ukrainian Ambassador to Qatar Andrii Kuzmenko, present at the Congress, have called for the Russian Federation to be excluded from FIFA.

But the Russian Alexey Sorokin, questioned on the subject, kicked into touch: “What does Russian football have to do with it?

What did Russian football do wrong?

“Defended this former member of the Council of Fifa.

The placement in alphabetical order meant that the Russians and Ukrainians were seated a few rows apart, symbolizing one of the many fault lines that world football hopes to bridge.