By Paul Nicholson
August 29 – It was a moment worthy of the reality show star that he is and the global leader he wants to be seen as. US president Donald Trump met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the White House yesterday to bang the drum for the 2026 World Cup to be hosted in North America.
Also on hand was US Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro who presented POTUS with a US Soccer jersey, Infantino also presented a jersey.
But pride of place amongst the gifts were the official yellow and red cards presented by Infantino who suggested to Trump he could use them in media meetings.
Trump needed no further invitation as waved the red card at the gathered media contingent saying: “That’s very good. I like that! I like that.”
On the subject of the World Cup and clearly on better form with Infantino than other European leaders, said: “Soccer has come such a long way, I guess you call it football, but over here we call it soccer. Maybe someday they’ll change the name? I’m not sure, we’ll see. It’s working very well either way.
“I want to thank Gianni Infantino for being here – he’s the president of FIFA and a highly respected man.”
Trump continued: “Soccer has to be one of the fastest growing sports in the world and the job you’ve done is really fantastic, Gianni.
“I have to also thank Bob Kraft. He originally called me and said, ‘what do you think about trying to get the World Cup to the United States?’ I said I’d really like it and we got Canada and Mexico involved.
“We’re going to have a great partnership and it’s going to be very special, I look forward to it.
“Let’s see, in 2026 I won’t be here [as president]. Maybe they’ll extend the term? If they don’t extend it the media is going to be very boring, they’ll all be out of business I guess.”
Infantino talks next steps and opportunity
With the official White House media visit out the way Infantino recorded a separate interview discussing the 2026 World Cup and saying that he was “assured of the commitment and co-operation to make (2026) successful” and that he was encouraged to see how excited the White House were generally for the World Cup.
He also warned that Russia 2018 would be a hard act to follow saying “it was the best World Cup ever, everything worked well. It was a new country the world didn’t know, a welcoming country.” However, he did emphasise the leading role that he felt the region should and could take in world football.
Specifically on the 2026 organisation Infantino said the job was now to see “how to get the relevant government agencies involved sooner rather than later” on issues like security and travel.
Focussing on the opportunity for the game 2026 provide he said: “In addition (we need) to make sure soccer fever gets into the bodies of all people in North America…the whole build-up needs to work and how to make soccer in the US, Canada and Mexico greater, bigger, more important and more relevant.
View the interview with Infantino below. Video provided courtesy of U.S. Soccer/Wazee Digital.
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