US President Donald Trump has intervened in the escalating crisis at Fifa, cautioning that pushing out president Gianni Infantino would amount to a costly blunder for world football's governing body.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump defended Infantino as calls grew for the Fifa boss to step aside following a collapsed proposal to privatize significant commercial rights tied to the World Cup. "Fifa would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing president Gianni Infantino," Trump wrote. "He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!"
The intervention marks Trump's first public defense of Infantino since details emerged in late July of the so-called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme. The plan would have established a separate company to oversee commercial and ticketing operations across all Fifa tournaments, including World Cups, with roughly 20 to 21 percent of the venture sold to outside investors. Reports have linked American venture capital firm Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner—brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner—as the anticipated lead investor in the deal.
Infantino has since apologized for pursuing the FFE plan and abandoned it, but the fallout has proven difficult to contain. Three of football's most powerful regional bodies—Uefa, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and Concacaf, which governs football across North America, Central America and the Caribbean—issued a joint open letter accusing the Fifa president of