Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump: What the FIFA boss has to do with the US president

Friends are important to Gianni Infantino. Especially when they are powerful statesmen. Shortly after his election as head of FIFA, ten years ago, the 55-year-old Swiss already had a very powerful friend. At their seventh meeting in three years, the friend presented him with the "Order of Friendship" in 2019.

Infantino hasn't worn the five-pointed gold star on the green ribbon since then. Perhaps he's even a little embarrassed by it today, because Vladimir Putin, the friend who awarded him the medal, is largely ostracized internationally as a war criminal. And Infantino now has new, even more powerful friends.

Donald Trump, for example. The US President even recently invited his friend Gianni, whom he consistently called "Johnny" and "boss of soccer" during their first meeting at the White House on August 29, 2018, to the major Middle East peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. There, for the big group shot, the FIFA boss stood in a row with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and all the other heads of state and government, doing what he does best: smiling smugly.

And it wasn't just the Egyptian newspaper "Al-Masri al-Jum" who wondered in surprise what he was doing there, the summit's "strangest" guest. "Infantino has been drawn to the political stage since he took office in 2016," ARD sports journalist Robert Kempe told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

"He sought proximity to Russia and has not yet returned the Order of Friendship awarded to him. He sought proximity to Qatar, to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and met Trump for the first time in 2018," the sports journalist said. "He likes to surround himself with this type of leader."

Heads of state who make no secret of their autocratic ambitions. Trump retaliated, calling the FIFA president the "King of Soccer." This "bromance" between the "King of Soccer" and the US president, who is currently being heavily criticized at "No King" demonstrations across the country, is paying off especially for the ambitious FIFA boss in the run-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

He seems willing to incur the anger of the association's members for this. "At the last FIFA Congress in Asunción, Paraguay, he kept all the world's national football associations waiting for hours, blamed it on 'unforeseen circumstances' via email, and then later declared that he had traveled with Trump to the Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia," said Kempe, who was also present at the congress. "This caused protests," and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin even left early.

In his dealings with Donald Trump, Infantino pulls out all the stops in terms of subservience: He flatters him, laughs loudly at his jokes, and never corrects or contradicts Trump's sometimes confused statements.

"After Trump's recent threats to withdraw games from American cities before the upcoming World Cup by simply calling Gianni Infantino, there has been no denial from the FIFA boss to date, no statement like 'Sorry, but that's our decision alone...'" Kempe criticizes. Infantino is allowing FIFA to be drawn into the MAGA movement's domestic political culture war without being challenged, the accusation goes.

When it comes to their ideas about exercising power, Infantino and Trump appear to be brothers in spirit: "The way Trump leads his country – erratically and non-conformist, an all-powerful president who then rules from below – roughly corresponds to the culture in sports associations like FIFA," says Kempe. The world football association functions in a clearly hierarchical manner, "there are no debates between individual members, no annoying democratic control mechanisms," explains the expert. It has long since ceased to be about football. Kempe: "FIFA is no longer an association that claims to develop football. Infantino is only interested in power," the sports journalist is convinced.

Trump and Infantino are also similar when it comes to their concept of transparency: "The FIFA boss hasn't given interviews for years and no longer speaks to the press. This, too, is reminiscent of America under Trump, where only select journalists are allowed close to the power," the expert said. "Infantino only communicates with the outside world via social media or self-produced images or clips in which he shakes hands with heads of state. This was different even under his predecessor Sepp Blatter, although there was much to criticize," Kempe said.

In the Gulf region, in the financially powerful monarchies of the UAE, Qatar, and Qatar, which Islam expert Udo Steinbach described to RND as the new "force field" where "the music will be played in power politics in the future," both Trump and Infantino found reliable partners. The destination of Trump's first foreign trip during his previous term in office was Saudi Arabia in 2017; at that time, he succeeded in persuading the Gulf states to sign a peace agreement with Israel.

Infantino, in turn, found financially strong partners in the Gulf States who helped implement his ambitious innovations with a lot of money: the highly controversial FIFA Club World Cup last summer in the USA, but also the World Cup next year, which has been expanded from 32 to 48 teams.

In addition, the FIFA president wanted to "present himself as a person on equal footing with the world's powerful. He justified his participation in the Middle East summit by arguing that FIFA wanted to participate in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip," the ARD expert said. Infantino profiles himself as a self-proclaimed "bridge builder and peacemaker, but is giving the sports association an increasingly succinct political profile, even if he would deny it," Kempe criticized. After his flirtation with Putin, which no one likes to talk about anymore, Infantino's FIFA embraced Trump's MAGA ideology. "He supported the call to award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize," Kempe said. And when FIFA moved into an office in New York, where did it find it? In Trump Tower, of course...

But what motivates the US President to get involved with the Swiss and its world football association, whose name and significance he knew neither eight years ago? Especially since the US President has never made a secret of his contempt for international organizations like the UN, EU, or NATO.

"I believe that Infantino benefits infinitely more from Trump than vice versa," Kempe is convinced. "Trump doesn't really need Infantino, but he's happy that the FIFA boss is giving him a platform," he added. It's quite possible that after the final whistle of the upcoming World Cup, Trump will lose interest in the "King of Soccer."

Gianni Infantino, meanwhile, has his sights set primarily on 2027: His re-election is coming up, and he must demonstrate success by then. "Sepp Blatter once described it as a FIFA president working to be re-elected from the day he is elected," says Kempe. The excessive proximity to Trump's "MAGA ideology" could backfire on him. But in the end, it's all about money.

It's about luring member associations with ever-increasing revenues, because that ultimately means more subsidies. Kempe: "The job of a FIFA president is to guarantee that money comes in." At least, that's what has been reliably flowing in the "Infantino system" to date.