Germany legend Philipp Lahm has blasted Gianni Infantino by claiming FIFA have lost all credibility due to the actions of its president.
Infantino has been front and centre of the World Cup in Qatar, appearing on TV screens with regularity during matches. He will be present once again when Argentina take on France in the final at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The tournament has highlighted many controversies surrounding FIFA, with 17 of the 22 FIFA ExCo members who handed the competition to Qatar having since been banned or indicted over allegations of corruption and wrongdoing. The country’s treatment of migrant workers and the LGBTQ+ community have also been repeatedly questioned.
Infantino, meanwhile, has drawn personal ridicule for his bizarre hour-long speech which hit back at Qatar’s critics. Lahm, who now works for the German Football Association (DFB), has slammed Infantino for what he sees as negligent leadership.
“FIFA continued to lose credibility with the top representative. One increasingly gets the impression that Gianni Infantino is not looking for the best solution in terms of football and that he simply does not have integrity," he wrote in his column for RND .
"Infantino doesn't give the impression that he wants to change anything about it. He takes advantage of the game. That is the problem of FIFA, a European-based institution, not football. And that can only be changed by finally relying on a reasonable, transparent award procedure in the future.”
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Lahm is involved in Germany’s preparations for hosting the next major tournament, Euro 2024, so speaks from a position of authority. He believes that, rather than stewarding the sport and looking after its best interests, FIFA is actively causing harm.
“There is nothing wrong with football itself. But the people who govern, manage and market it are squandering the unrestricted joy of it. They forget that they are merely service providers for a common good,” he wrote in a separate column for the Guardian.
“FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is trusted with everything. Some fans are beginning to believe that technocrats in the VAR cellars are exerting a damaging influence when they decide on penalties or calculate in millimetres whether the ball was out.”
Lahm has been writing throughout the tournament and has previously stated that the World Cup should never have been given to Qatar. He believes the country’s human rights issues should have superseded any other arguments.
Despite some minor progress, which has frequently been highlighted by FIFA and the organising committee, Lahm noted “homosexuals are still being criminalised, women do not have the same rights as men, and there are restrictions on freedom of the press and expression.”
