Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter questioned the connection between his successor, Gianni Infantino, and US President Donald Trump lengthy earlier than plans had been put in place to unload a portion of the competitors to non-public buyers.
Within the aftermath of the 2026 World Cup in North America, Infantino is attempting to promote a part of the World Cup business rights for $20 billion.
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Whereas the President himself has not been reported to be shopping for a stake, it has emerged that Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, who’s Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is a part of a non-public investor group that might accomplish that.
This has seen each the Trump household and FIFA come below hearth in latest weeks, whereas Blatter started to query the US President and Infantino’s relationship again in 2025.
Photograph by Carl Recine/Getty Photos
Sepp Blatter questioned if Donald Trump or Gianni Infantino was his successor at FIFA
In an interview revealed by The Telegraph on December 5, 2025, Blatter expressed his view that their relationship was not good for soccer and even commented that he does not know if his successor at FIFA is Infantino or Trump.
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He went on to talk about ‘private connections’, recommended the World Cup Trophy might have been moved to the White Home and completed with a reasonably worrying line about ‘If the politicians determine the place you play the sport, then the place is our recreation going’.
Blatter’s full feedback learn: “My successor, I do not know whether it is actually Trump or Infantino.
“I can’t say they need to not have friendship, however I do not see precisely the large curiosity of soccer.
“I see this as private connections, particularly with Trump, and I am not so certain the place the precise trophy of the World Cup, which has at all times been in Zurich effectively guarded till the opening of the brand new World Cup, [is]. I doubt that. Maybe that his trophy is already within the White Home.
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“That would be the finish. If the politicians determine the place you play the sport, then the place is our recreation going?”
The connection between Trump and Infantino has been a serious speaking level of late, with the previous changing into more and more unpopular on account of his World Cup plans.
Nonetheless, there was hypothesis that he might prolong his time as President of FIFA past the normal three phrases, as he has solely technically served two phrases as an elected President after Blatter initially stepped down.
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