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As FIFA president Gianni Infantino is being publicly excoriated by top soccer officials within and outside of his organization, his close friend and ally, U.S. president Donald Trump, is not rushing to his defense.
Before Friday, the Trump administration had not commented on this week’s tumult in FIFA, despite its close ties to both Infantino and prospective investor Joshua Kushner.
At Camp David on Friday, hours after the resignation of Carlos Cordeiro—Infantino’s top envoy to Trump—the president was asked if he had advance notice from Infantino or FIFA about the plan to bring on outside investors to help fund a new $20 billion commercial arm.
“No, I never spoke to him,” Trump said, before moving to the next question.
Infantino has tightly embraced Trump in recent years, much to the distaste of many in soccer—particularly in Europe. Two weeks ago, Trump stood beside Infantino at an event at Trump Tower ahead of the World Cup final, and said the FIFA boss “made yet another of his good decisions” when he let Folarin Balogun play against Belgium.
Trump held a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday. On Thursday, he announced a peace deal between Hamas and Israel; neither side has said they agreed to the deal. Infantino accompanied Trump to his Gaza peace talks in October, and in February signed a deal between FIFA and Trump’s Board of Peace that included raising $75 million for projects in Gaza.
The White House did not respond to several requests for comment Thursday night or Friday morning, after Cordeiro resigned. Cordeiro, the former president of U.S. Soccer, served on Trump’s World Cup task force, and was a major link between the FIFA and U.S. government for the tournament.
On Tuesday, after reports started spilling out in the media, FIFA announced its plan for FIFA Forward Enterprise—Infantino’s plan to sell 20% of FIFA’s commercial business to outside capital and use some of the investment money to increase payments to member associations.
FIFA said the anticipated lead minority investor would be Thrive Eternal, a holding company founded by venture capitalist Joshua Kusher.
Kusher’s older brother, Jared, is married to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and was involved in bringing the World Cup to the U.S., and the final match to New Jersey. Their father, Charles, is Trump’s ambassador to France and Morocco, and was pardoned by Trump in 2020; he was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign donations. A former top Democratic donor, Charles Kushner donated $1 million to Trump’s super PAC in 2023.
On Thursday, Europe’s soccer body, UEFA, voted unanimously to boycott all FIFA tournaments as long as the FFE plan is ongoing. CONCACAF, which represents countries in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, also said Thursday it “rejected” FIFA’s plan. The Asian Football Confederation on Friday joined UEFA and CONCACAF “in expressing concern” about FFE, and said FIFA must “undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework.”
The response from U.S. Soccer was brief. The federation’s official X account on Thursday shared CONCACAF’s statement rejecting the FFE plan, along with the statement: “U.S. Soccer stands with Concacaf and its members.” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, who also sits on FIFA’s 37-member council, is not commenting beyond the U.S. Soccer statement, a spokesperson tells FOS.
Cordeiro’s resignation on Friday morning marked a further blow to Infantino and the plan, calling it a “bad deal” for member associations, soccer, and the sport’s future. Also on Friday, FIFA COO Kevin Lamour called FFE “the project of one person” and said it’s time for “football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”
Also on Friday, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the FFE proposal shows Infantino is the “wrong man” to lead FIFA.
Sen. Ron Wyden, who is leading an ongoing congressional investigation into Jared Kushner’s investments, told Front Office Sports that the potential FIFA-Thrive deal raised corruption concerns.
“Soccer fans around the world are rightfully outraged by this scheme from Infantino and Joshua Kushner to turn the World Cup into just another commodity for private equity to buy up,” Wyden said in a statement. “It seems clear from the global backlash that this corrupt plan is unlikely to succeed, but it is just one of dozens of shady deals by Trump’s family and close associates to get rich from the presidency.”
Trump and Infantino’s Relationship
The ties between FIFA and the Trump administration are thick.
Infantino joined Trump on official visits including trips to the Middle East that delayed his arrival at FIFA Congress in 2025, and to Trump’s Gaza peace talks. Infantino said Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize, and created the FIFA Peace Prize for him.
FIFA and the Trump administration worked closely together before and during the tournament on matters like immigration, visas, and Iran.
FIFA moved into office space in Trump Tower last year, and Trump and Infantino hosted an event there together two days before the final in New York City, where they traded compliments and lauded the World Cup’s successes. At the final, Infantino and Trump awarded the World Cup trophy to Spain together, and for the second straight year at a FIFA final in New Jersey, Infantino failed to remove Trump from the photo-op of the trophy lift.
But perhaps nothing about their relationship has drawn more scrutiny than Balogun’s suspended red card.
After Balogun was controversially sent off in the round of 32 match, Trump called Infantino about the decision, and the U.S. government aided U.S. Soccer’s push to appeal the decision. In the end, the head of FIFA’s disciplinary committee made the decision by himself, according to The Times, to overturn the red card. Trump celebrated, and European critics complained about the appearance of political interference.
“So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA,” Trump said. “I spoke to a man who is highly respected, and by the way, whose level of respect has gone up tenfold.”
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