While President Trump greeted the dignitaries and business leaders on Tuesday during his state visit to Saudi Arabia, he was with a very familiar face: Gianni Infantino, president of the governing body of football, FIFA, Mr. Trump’s first mandate.
The close relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Infantino, a Swiss -italian football administrator, for years has raised his eyebrows in soccer circles and beyond. Friendship seems to go beyond one among a leader of a World Cup host, the United States is organizing the next edition of the Quadrennial Tournament in 2026 with Mexico and Canada and the head of Global Soccer.
On Wednesday, Mr. Infantino will join Mr. Trump in the second leg of his presidential tour for the Gulf states in Qatar, the thumb peninsula that borders Saudi Arabia that organized the World Cup in 2022. The soccer chief is expected to preside over a ceremony in which the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Tani, presides of the Cup for the Mr. Trump’s murder.
The representatives of Canada and Mexico are not expected to be present. In the White House last week, Trump, whose tariffs have fueled tensions with the two American neighbors, joked saying that Mr. Infantino had correctly minimized his roles in the World Cup.
The trips of Mr. Infantino with Trump this week surprised FIFA members, who have brought together thousands of miles away in Paraguay for the annual organization of the organization. A meeting of the FIFA Board in Paraguay that had been scheduled for this week hastily moved to a videoconference for Mr. Infantino to with the United States delegation to the Gulf.
“The president of FIFA has accepted invitations to attend a series of important events with world leaders, where FIFA world drinks will also discuss,” FIFA said in a statement. Mr. Infantino is now scheduled to travel to Paraguay to organize Congress on Thursday, which had retreated for an hour to accommodate the changes.
Mr. Infantino has also forged his own narrow links with the Gulf since he took care of the FIFA full of scandals in 2016. Although he promised to clean the organization, his mandate has led to greater scrutiny of how the football body carries out its business, especially after changing its rules last year to allow Saudi Arabia, an important financial sponsor of the organization, they are granted For the World Cup 20344.
The ceremony in Qatar is in line with the way Mr. Infantino has focused on Trump as a pillar of next year’s tournament. It would not be the first time that you carry out the internship of the president of the center.
In 2020, Mr. Infantino served as something or an act of warming for a dinner that Mr. Trump organized his first mandate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was in Dubai later that year when Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement to normalize relations, an agreement negotiated by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son -in -law.
Last year, Mr. Infantino commissioned Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, to participate in the raffle for a new club tournament, the Club World Cup, which will be played for the first time this summer, in the United States.
Mr. Infantino was at the inauguration of Mr. Trump in January, and has temporarily given the Golden Golden Trophy of the Club World Cup to the White House, where it has been exhibited next to the resolved desk.