Representatives of several associations of European FIFA members left the annual congress of the director of the director in Paraguay to protest against the late arrival of President Gianni Infantino in the procedure on Thursday. Infantino had been in the Middle East this week with Donald Trump visiting the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and arrived late in Paraguay late for a starting hour scheduled at 10:30 am for the annual meeting of his organization.
The members who came out included eight European members of the FIFA Council – the main decision -making body that establishes the agenda in the broad sense. UEFA representatives to the council who left are released understand the president of UEFA, Alexander čeferin, and the president of the football association Debbie Hewitt. The other delegates who left protest procedures include the president of the Norway football federation, Lise Klaveness, who called the late “disappointing” and “concerning” arrival.
“The annual congress is the most important organization to ensure good governance of international football,” she said in a statement. “210 associations of people have traveled around the world to participate in the congress here in Paraguay, pending professional leadership and dialogue at the highest level. I understand the frustration and disappointment of European FIFA members, and we feel sorry for the excellent hosts in Paraguay … We are now expecting FIFA explaining this situation.
Infantino had prioritized meetings in the Middle East this week, when the president of FIFA appeared during events involving the leaders of the countries that hosted the previous World Cup (Qatar), the next male world cup (co-organized by the United States) and the 2034 edition (Saudi Arabia).
Infantino’s delay meant that the annual meeting started three hours late. Infantino apologized to his audience several times after his arrival, quoting problems with his flight and insisting that he was important that he represented football during political meetings.
“As president of FIFA, my responsibility is to make decisions in the interest of the organization,” said Infantino. “I felt that I had to be there to represent football and all of you.”
Infantino’s visit to the Middle East comes a little more than a week after its appearance at the White House at the first public meeting of the World Cup working group in 2026 of the Trump administration, responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of the tournament next year. During this event, the members of Trump’s cabinet joked that visitors to the World Cup were subject to an arrest if they exceeded their visas – Jibes made in the middle of the backdrop of illegal deportations of permanent residents of the administration to foreign detention establishments.
“We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the match,” said US vice-president JD Vance of the World Cup visitors. “But when the moment passes, they will have to go home. Otherwise, they will have to speak to the secretary (Kristi) Noem (Kristi).”
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Infantino seemed to approach these remarks in his speech after his arrival at the FIFA congress on Thursday, saying that all those who wanted to visit for the male World Cup or the club World Cup this year in the United States would be welcome.
However, he said: “Those who want to come and create trouble, as in all the countries of the world, well, they are not welcome, they are not welcome in the world. In fact, allow me to be also clear on this subject – they are not welcome in football. We do not want any troublemakers in football. We want the troublemakers to come out of football.”
