Donald Trump brutally humiliates Gianni Infantino with one-word response | Football | Sport

Donald Trump left Gianni Infantino with egg on his face following FIFA’s U-turn surrounding proposed private investment plans. FIFA had announced they were looking to welcome investment, with nations told they would bank a bigger fee if they signed up to the scheme before a mid–September deadline.

Part of the justification for this is suggestions that the FIFA members have lost confidence in Infantino – a stance exaggerated by his relationship with Donald Trump.

There were accusations of political interference during the World Cup, while the private investment plans had links to Trump’s associates, with the £14.8billion commercial subsidiary plan, backed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared, who is the US Special Envoy for Peace and married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

However, when quizzed about the connection, Trump denied any knowledge of the plan, and brutally shut down any questions regarding the issue. He first replied: “Who?”

Then, after he was asked further about Infantino’s plan, Trump added: “No, I didn’t speak to him.”

That is one of several problems Infantino is facing though, with UEFA mobilising ahead of next year’s FIFA presidential election. In a statement released on Saturday, the European governing body urged its members to push for a change of leadership.

A statement read: “The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family. When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of Fifa’s member associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said: ‘Of course we have to be transparent.’

“He told the assembled stakeholders: ‘The money of Fifa is your money. It’s not the money of the Fifa president. You are the national associations and the money of Fifa has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.’ On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back-room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent.”

The move was backed up by the English FA, with a separate statement saying: “We fully support UEFA’s position. It is time for a full and robust review of FIFA’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long – term stewardship of football at its heart.”