Patrick Barclay: What does it matter who takes over FIFA?

Candidate: Gianni Infantino is being backed by the English and Scottish FAs
Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Patrick Barclay25 February 2016

An event of monumental irrelevance takes place tomorrow. After it, football will always be the same again.

I refer, of course, to the election of Sepp Blatter’s successor as president of FIFA. If you care who wins, you are an unusual — and possibly misguided — person.

A growing threat to favourite Sheikh Salman, according to some of the jaundiced eyes who professionally scan such matters, is Gianni Infantino, now supported by the English and Scottish FAs.

He is the right-hand man of Michel Platini, very much identifiable with the policies followed by UEFA before that organisation’s president was banned from football along with Blatter.

You might call Infantino the ice in the Platini cocktail. He is cool and hard. The only time I ever saw him crack even slightly was when Platini, addressing where Blatter had gone wrong during one of the playful Frenchman’s late-summer briefings in Monaco, delivered the opinion that leadership in football should never again arise from the ranks of the administration.

Fifa presidential candidates

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Everyone knew where to look. Infantino was sitting next to Platini — and the inadvertent raising of his eyebrows provided the perfect punchline. Platini joined in the laughter and Infantino did his best to.

While Infantino remained the power behind the throne, he was happy enough, but the throne itself, which became a possibility when Platini was obliged to withdraw, was always going to appeal. He has promised to expand the World Cup from 32 teams to 40 — a tactic about which, Sheikh Salman, has been rightly scathing.

On the other hand, Infantino has promised transparency — they all do, including Blatter — and this was cynical electioneering.

It’s what I mean by saying football will always be the same again. Passengers on the FIFA/UEFA gravy train cannot change their ways. The system encourages them to care less about the game than the allocation of money.

You or I could be a decent president of FIFA because we care about football and would see the office as an opportunity to end, say, the nonsense of refereeing’s relationship with television — they could easily be the firmest of friends, to everyone’s benefit — and a variety of agent-oiled evils.

But we’d never win a FIFA election.

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