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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay

Infantino’s idolisation of Trump has left football with blood on its hands

Iran fans fly the national flag at Qatar 2022
Iran fans at Qatar 2022. They have been banned from entering the US for this year’s World Cup, while Iran’s participation is now in doubt after the US-Israeli bombardment of the country. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Mr President. Fellow exco members. We’re going to need a bigger Board of Peace. How many mini‑pitches are we up to now? Gaza got 50 of them last month. What will it take to football-fix the global conflict being set in train by Fifa’s own Peace Prize Boy? A hundred mini-pitches? Four billion mini-pitches? All the mini‑pitches in the universe?

In a more sane version of what we must, out of habit, call the real world, it would seem absurd to talk about sports administration in the context of the US, Iran and the airborne conflict being played out across the borders of their allies.

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