FIFA’s close relationship with Donald Trump is about to become even closer as the U.S. president is set to become its landlord, with world football’s governing body opening a New York office in Trump Tower.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has spent the last year forging ever stronger links with Trump, visiting the White House and the president’s Florida base Mar-a-Lago on numerous occasions, as well as accompanying him on a recent tour of the Gulf, a trip Infantino prioritised over FIFA’s annual congress in Paraguay in May.
That decision drew sharp criticism from European football chiefs. Infantino, however, believes he must have a good relationship with the leader of the nation that is hosting the current Club World Cup and most of next year’s men’s World Cup, as well as being football’s largest growth market.
And the 55-year-old Swiss football administrator would point to the inclusion of $625million of security funding for the World Cup in Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill as proof that his approach is working.
Infantino was at an event at Trump Tower on Monday to launch a five-day exhibition of the Club World Cup trophy when he announced that FIFA would be moving in.
With Trump’s son Eric stood beside him, Infantino said: “FIFA (is) a global organisation (and) to be global, you have to be local, you have to be everywhere.
“We have to be in New York – not just for the FIFA Club World Cup this year and the FIFA World Cup next year – we have to be in New York as well when it comes to where our offices are based.
“So, today, we are opening an office of New York here in Trump Tower. Thank you, Eric, thank you to everyone. Thanks, of course, to President Trump as well, who is a big fan of soccer.”
While some will greet this news with a shrug and point out that Trump Tower is as good a site as any for a base in the city which is hosting your organisation’s most important events, others will be less impressed.
Infantino’s critics, of which there are many, will note that FIFA has only just opened a huge office in Miami, where it has moved most of its legal department, and also has a significant presence in Toronto, where there is an office of staff working on next summer’s tournament.
In fact, having only needed one base in Zurich for most of its 121-year history, Infantino has been opening offices around the globe for a decade, including an expensive operation in Paris that he has already started to wind down.
There are also unhappy institutional memories of Trump Tower itself, as it was the home of the late Chuck Blazer, the U.S. football administrator whose testimony as a government informant brought down Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter a decade ago and almost destroyed FIFA.
Blazer, in fact, had two apartments in the 58-story skyscraper, one for him, one for his cats. And he was not the only disgraced member of the old regime to reside there, as Brazilian football chief Jose Maria Marin was kept there under house arrest for his part in the FIFA corruption scandal.
And then there is the wider and thornier issue of the increasingly blurred lines between Trump the president and Trump the businessman, as many will point to this as yet another example of the president’s family using his political position for their own commercial benefit.
Even if the Trumps are giving FIFA the space for a reduced rate or even for no charge at all, having FIFA as a tenant is a marketing coup.
(Photo: Ira L. Black – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
