Good morning. In every pub where I watched this summer’s World Cup unfold, two motifs were shared by supporters. Yes, football was coming home, and also the (frankly more firmly held belief) that Gianni Infantino was a wrong’un. As in matchday stadiums, boos would routinely erupt when cameras cut to the Fifa boss; a proper panto villain.
Regardless, he looked poised to cruise to victory in next year’s vote for Fifa president, despite this competition’s controversies – Fifa’s jaw-dropping, unprecedented overturning of US striker Folarin Balogun’s red card after Donald Trump’s lobbying chief among them. Undeterred, more than 200 of Fifa’s 211 member associations still backed his fourth term.
