How a dinner in 2020 in Davos prepared the way for a “Maga” World Cup

While the Chelsea of ​​the Premier League was on the way to a victory to laundered in the final of the club World Cup in July, President Donald Trump and the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, were deeply in discussions at New Jersey Sports Complex outside New York on another case: where the print for the next year’s World Cup would take place.

The high spectacle of the dramatic decides which teams will face the group phase of the most prestigious football tournament, as well as the calendar of the competition. It was expected to take place in Las Vegas, which houses the 1994 draw when the United States welcomed the World Cup for the last time and a natural background for Glitz. But since at least in March, the officials had discussed in private to offer the draw in Washington, with a president of Showman who regularly kisses the projectors associated with sports.

So, during this July match in the stadium which will also host the last match of the World Cup next year, Trump and Infantino agreed to obtain the draw in the American capital – namely the Kennedy Center, another institution that Trump has reshaped to his taste.

“During this final of the Club World Cup final, there was a real seriousness to look, if we want to do it, we have to do it now,” Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House FIFA, told The Associated Press. “It was at this point that the talks warmed between the president and Mr. Infantino in terms of realization.”

The collaboration on the draw, scheduled for December 5, illustrates the link between Trump and Infantino, described by the American president as “probably the most respected man in sport”. The relationship will come into an even clearer concentration as the World Cup approaches, jointly organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Tickets are now open to fans, because major issues hang during the tournament, especially to what extent visitors to certain countries will be welcome in the United States in the midst of its repression of immigration. Even if the White House promises to open, Trump added another uncertainty by suggesting that he could move games from cities he thinks of being dangerous.

Trump and Infantino develop a deep alliance

Despite his affinity for sport, Trump is better known for his links with golf and football than football. But his awareness of sport was partly stimulated by his youngest son, Barron, who is a football fan that he had a net in the first lady’s garden during Trump’s first term.

Trump’s interest only increased when the United States won the World Cup reception rights in 2018. Nothing excited Trump as the organization of a major event, and Giuliani recalled that at the time, the president and his collaborators were almost melancholy that he would not be in the White House at the end of the second term.

Shortly after the allocation of the United States, Trump welcomed Infantino to the White House. Infantino, who also served his first mandate as president of FIFA, made an impression by putting Trump red and yellow penalty cards, joking that they could be used on the press.

The relationship prospered in 2020 when the two men plotted their future.

During a dinner in January at the World Economic Summit of Davos, near the FIFA home in Zurich, Infantino called the American president “my great friend”. Trump, always appreciated by a compliment, responded by inviting Infantino to a white house signature event for the Abraham agreements, which sought to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries.

The ceremony occurred while Infantino aligned the sporting and commercial links of FIFA with Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. He followed a diagram of Infantino, a bit like Trump, making fun of autocratic leaders.

Infantino seemed to savor public meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin before, during and after this country that welcomed the 2018 World Cup. Visiting Putin at the Kremlin with a group of football big during the tournament, Infantino said he felt “like a child in a toy store” in Russia. He collected the Putin’s Russian Friendship Order the following year.

Infantino would later move to Doha before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, emerging as a very defender of the small state of the Gulf who was fiercely criticized for his treatment of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers necessary to build essential stadiums, transport projects and hotels.

Infantino connections to Biden were much more limited

While the link between Trump and Infantino was deepening, Joe Biden has destroyed Trump’s hopes to stay in the White House. Over the next four years, Infantino’s links with Washington have been much more limited. The two leaders had a brief meeting on the sidelines of the 20 Summit group in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, an ephemeral moment of FIFA captured with a photo on its website.

The second gentleman Douglas Emhoff also met Infantino when he traveled for the Women’s World Cup in July 2023.

The preparations for the World Cup under Biden were under the radar by design, according to a senior official of this administration who asked anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Even if the administration had its own working group of the 2026 World Cup, Biden’s aid were aware of the sensitivities surrounding the great gatherings so shortly after the Pandemic COVID-19.

Biden’s White House has also taken care not to openly promote a relationship with FIFA, which had sidelined the American Football Federation in its traditional role in coordinating a domestic world cup. Instead, he negotiates individually with each of the 11 American host cities on security, ticket office and other questions.

Infantino visited the White House while Biden was president at least once, meeting for about an hour in 2024 with the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, a passionate football fan. Biden officials stressed in Infantino that they wanted to make sure that the host cities finally benefited from the World Cup matches and that the American human rights values ​​would be respected.

Trump’s return puts the scene for a “Maga” World Cup

Trump’s disappointment about missing the World Cup would prove unfounded after being elected to a second non -consecutive term last year.

Since this victory, Trump’s infantino embrace has sprung up. He quickly congratulated him the day after the poll was in Mar-A-Lago, the South Florida Club of Trump during the presidential transition and had a privileged seat during its inauguration of January. Trump described Infantino as a “winner” in a video played in the draw of Miami for the club World Cup in December, which was assisted by daughter Ivanka and son -in -law Jared Kushner.

Meanwhile, FIFA settled in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Infantino worked last month when the world leaders met nearby for the United Nations annual general assembly. Infantino and Trump met last week in New York, with First Lady Melania Trump, according to the Instagram account of the president of FIFA.

Infantino teased the idea that Trump himself has the draw, which Giuliani called the “Maga-Fifa World Cup draw”.

“Like a large opera, there will be a high drama,” said Giuliani.

Infantino had more public appearances with Trump than with all officials from Heartlands in Europe and South South Sports, according to the FIFA leader’s calendar and social networks. He was late for his own FIFA Congress in Paraguay in May because he was with Trump and the Saudi crown prince in the Middle East, a decision considered disrespectful of his own voters and criticized by European football federations.

During the most recent appearance of Infantino alongside Trump in the oval office on August 22, he even took other football officials when he offered a Trophy of the Gold World Cup to the American president, saying that it was “for the winners only”.

This transfer was unexpected, according to a senior football official who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive dynamics. Even if it was a replica, the moment was always considered a snob of the World Cup tradition because Trump has kept a trophy which is supposed to belong to sport as a whole, not an individual person.

An official of the White House said that the trophy remained in possession of the White House.

No offer of this type has been publicly extended by FIFA to the president of Mexico Claudia Scheinbaum or Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Infantino did not meet Carney this year and met Sheinbaum for the first time on August 29.

The episode is a reminder of the way Infantino can move with the moment. The man who pointed out to Qatar on the eve of the World Cup in November 2022 that “today I feel (like) a migrant worker” – comments interpreted as solidarity with migrants – laughed with Trump and the secretary of domestic security Kristi Noem earlier this year when they banned migrants who could not develop the reprimanded wall.

Infantino has framed his close relationship with Trump as “crucial” for the success of the World Cup, a massive operation based on vast cooperation with federal, state and local governments. Trump’s suggestion that he could move the host cities recalled that Infantino works with a famous impulsive president whose whims could expose FIFA to logistical ravages and legal danger if he followed.

Even without these threats, the people involved in the planning of the World Cup said that the challenges of the tournament are raised because it is the first in a series of global sporting events organized by the United States, including the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“It must be fine to show the world that if you want to organize the best sporting and entertainment events, you want to have them in the United States,” said Alex Lasry, CEO of the New York / New Jersey host committee. “I do not think it is unusual for a white house to coordinate and be involved, and I do not think it is unusual for the heads of state and for the president to be excited and to speak of a mega event to come here.”

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Dunbar reported in Geneva.