Fifa opens office in Trump Tower, deepening ties with US president

The Guardian

2 days ago

Fifa's relationship with US president Donald Trump now has a physically tangible marker, with soccer's world governing body announcing that it has opened an office at Trump Tower in New York City.
The announcement of the new office opening came on Monday evening, after Fifa placed the Club World Cup trophy on display in the lobby of the skyscraper on the south-west corner of Central Park in an event attended by several Fifa dignitaries including its president Gianni Infantino, the Brazilian great Ronaldo and Eric Trump, the son of the US president and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization.
'Fifa [is] a global organisation [and] to be global, you have to be local, you have to be everywhere, so we have to be in New York – not just for the Fifa Club World Cup this year and the Fifa World Cup next year – we have to be in New York as well when it comes to where our offices are based,' Infantino said. 'Thank you, Eric [Trump], thank you to everyone. Thanks, of course, to president Trump as well.'
Fifa did not provide specifics on which staff or departments would be housed in the office, which makes the federation a tenant of the company owned by the sitting US president with a year to the start of its biggest and most lucrative tournament.
The opening of the Trump Tower location follows Fifa's 2024 opening of an office in Miami, Florida, which houses the organization's legal division and some staff responsible for putting on the Club World Cup and next year's World Cup. Some staff from Fifa's global headquarters in Zurich were relocated to the United States to work in the latter office.
'On behalf of myself, on behalf of New York, on behalf of the Trump Organization and everybody that works in this building – we love you,' Eric Trump said in remarks at the event. 'We're honoured, we're excited about all the things that Fifa is doing.'
The office opening continues Fifa's and Infantino's efforts to appear publicly close to the US president, with Infantino describing his relationship with Trump as 'absolutely crucial' in a meeting with the International Football Association Board (Ifab) in February.
Infantino has since appeared with the US president at several public events, including at the Oval Office when announcing the creation of a World Cup task force. In that meeting, Infantino presented Trump with the Club World Cup trophy, which has continued to be on display in the Oval Office for all of the president's scheduled events in the space. Infantino was later present at the first public meeting of the World Cup taskforce, at which he was seated alongside Trump with vice-president JD Vance.
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Infantino also accompanied Trump to the Middle East this year – a trip that made him late for the Fifa congress in Paraguay, angering Fifa delegates who walked out of the gathering in protest. Uefa later accused Infantino of putting 'private political interests' ahead of his Fifa responsibilities, and Human Rights Watch demanded that Infantino reveal the specific purpose and details of his trip, which he has yet to do.
'As president of Fifa my responsibility is to make decisions in the interests of the organisation,' Infantino said at the congress, where he apologized for his tardyness. 'I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.'