Trump Backs Infantino
US President Donald Trump has declared that it would be a “terrible mistake” for FIFA to replace its president Gianni Infantino, offering a strong public defence of the under-pressure football official just days after major confederations accused him of breaking trust through deception over a controversial commercial plan.
Trump’s intervention, posted on social media, comes in response to an open letter issued by UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation that sharply criticised Infantino’s handling of the now-abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal. The FFE plan would have created a new company to manage the commercial and ticketing rights of all FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, with approximately 21 per cent of the entity sold to a private investment group. The confederations accused Infantino of placing himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority and of damaging the trust that underpins the organisation.
In his message Trump wrote that FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if it even considered replacing Infantino, describing him as fantastic and crediting him with having just presided over the most successful World Cup ever presented – one that was, in Trump’s words, four times more successful than any before it. He added that if Infantino were removed, the organisation would never again achieve the same level of success or profitability. The comments mark the first time Trump has publicly defended Infantino since details of the FFE proposal emerged at the end of July.
The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, concluded earlier this summer with Spain defeating Argentina in the final. Infantino and Trump have maintained a close relationship, with the FIFA president awarding the US leader the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025. Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner (the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner) had been expected to lead the proposed investor group for the FFE project.
When Trump first addressed the FFE plans at the end of July he indicated that he had not spoken to Infantino about them. Infantino later apologised for the process surrounding the proposal, acknowledging that mistakes had been made and promising they would not be repeated. The open letter from the three confederations, however, made clear that the withdrawal of the plan has not ended the pressure on his leadership, calling instead for a fully independent review of what had occurred and emphasising that football belongs to no individual or institution.
The episode has injected fresh uncertainty into FIFA’s internal politics in the run-up to next year’s presidential election. While Infantino retains significant support in many parts of the football world, the united stance of three of the most powerful confederations represents one of the most serious challenges to his authority since he took office in 2016.
