Gianni Infantino spent a year cosying up to Donald Trump to make this World Cup run smoothly. Three days before the opening match, he's facing a criminal complaint in a French court.
Michel Platini — former UEFA president, banned from football after a 2015 corruption scandal, and later acquitted by a Swiss federal court in 2022 — has filed a complaint alleging that Infantino led a conspiracy of false accusation and influence peddling to block him from claiming the FIFA presidency. Infantino was working directly under Platini as UEFA general secretary at the time. His boss's ban cleared his own path straight to the top job in 2016. Platini's lawyers are also preparing a civil lawsuit seeking financial damages from FIFA.
The timing couldn't be worse for FIFA
This isn't exactly the pre-tournament narrative FIFA's PR team had mapped out. The organisation is already dealing with a ticket pricing scandal, tens of thousands of unsold seats across U.S. venues, and the deportation of a top referee — and that's before a ball has been kicked.
Now add a sitting president named in a criminal complaint by one of football's most recognisable former figures, filed in a French court with a civil suit on the way. Whatever the legal outcome, the optics are a mess.
Infantino's approach to this tournament has been conspicuous. He invited Trump on stage to present the Club World Cup trophy, then reportedly said nothing when Trump kept the actual trophy — leaving Chelsea to collect a replica. That episode drew plenty of eye-rolls. This one carries more serious weight.
Platini's case rests on a claim that the ban which ended his presidential ambitions wasn't just the result of an ethics process — it was engineered. The Swiss acquittal gave him some vindication on the criminal side. Now he's taking the fight to France, and directly at the man who benefited most from his downfall.
FIFA has not yet responded to requests for comment. The World Cup opens in three days.
