Gianni Infantino She began her opening speech at the Fifa congress by recalling the terrible genocide that took place in Rwanda years ago and telling a group of women survivors who are now football players. Also he wanted to recognize what Rwanda had done as a country and the resemblance to his arrival to the presidency of FIFA, after being about to leave for a visit to the African country at the height of the 2015 campaign, but after a gesture from the president Paul Kagame (present at the congress), changed his mind and started fighting like Rwanda did. “Without aid, with no one behind it, that’s how this country grew.”
His speech lasted up to fifty minutes and mixed several languages. “I promised and very few believed me that we would get organized the best cup in the world and we did. Excellent stadiums, perfect infrastructure, zero accidents. It was a very quiet tournament. A very important legacy has been left in Qatar, including human rights. The same thing happened with the Women’s World Cup in France. We promised that we would make FIFA stronger because you never know when something might happen and we did. The world has stopped due to covid and thanks to the solid situation of FIFA a 1,500 million dollar support plan has been launched and that football has helped to survive, not professional football, that of all
He started reviewing what he promised and, according to him, he delivered. “I also promised him that we would regain the trust of sponsors and televisions and we did so with 7,500 million dollars in the midst of a pandemic. FIFA has everyone’s trust. FIFA’s reserves are currently at 4,000 million dollars, which are for football. I promised to increase football development programs and we kept it.”
Transfer control, politics… everything has improved according to Infantino. “It is important that FIFA’s governance was much better. We promised it. Every dollar invested is investigated by an independent body. The United States has returned us $200 million, stolen by corrupt leaders. Even politicians believe in us. We also insist on changing the transfer system. Whenever there was a booking the police would look and see things. It is not normal that in a transfer market 7,000 million dollars were spent on transfers and 700 million on commissions and only 70 million went to the development of football. That’s why we created the ‘clearing house’. Rules have been passed for agents, for positions, for women…”
It’s VAR time. “The calendar of international matches has been changed up to 2030. The health of the players is protected. Now there is time to analyze whether it is the best possible. We have implemented the VAR, now the VAR light with four cameras is appearing. We are testing a new offside rule to favor the attacker. We try to make football more attractive to everyone who watches it. In the end what we have always promised was to work honestly to protect the associations and the fans. We must never forget that football is peace, joy and that it unites the whole world.”
It was time for promises for the next four years. “We will start playing the best women’s World Cup in history in 2023. And also the best men’s World Cup in 2026 because it will go from 32 to 48 teams, with 104 matches. It will be the most inclusive ever. A Club World Cup was created every four years from 2025. We don’t know where, but we will play. We need to create competitions to grow. There will also be a Women’s Club World Cup. There will also be a small tournament with the champions of each confederation“.
Search important holidays for less important ones. “We will create situations so that teams from some confederations can compete with others. We are studying create the World Series for friendlies dates. Even locally. There is not enough quality football around the world and seeing the passion there is, we need to create tournaments.”
Infantino has announced changes in the lower categories. “The Under 17 World Cup will be played every year and not every two. Both male and female. We don’t want generations to be lost. We are thinking of creating a festival for the Under 15s. There is also Wenger’s talent plan and through which a talent can appear anywhere in the world, as well as referees, ‘Team One’. limit on transfers, salaries… it can be very important. We are managing a budget of 11,000 million dollars. Football is happiness and joy. Remember.”
