Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, has launched an investigation into Fifa president Gianni Infantino, seeking documents that would detail the ties between soccer’s governing body and Donald Trump and his administration.
In a Sunday letter, Raskin wrote to Infantino and called for Fifa to provide any documents and communications related to gifts, payments or benefits provided to Trump and his associates, as well as the visitor logs for Fifa’s office space in Trump Tower, which it acquired last year. The committee also requested that Infantino sit for a transcribed interview.
Infantino’s relationship with Trump came under scrutiny in the lead-up to this summer’s World Cup. In December, at the World Cup draw in Washington, Trump was awarded a newly created “Fifa peace prize” at the Kennedy Center, where renovations were allegedly “rushed” on the administration’s orders to prepare for the event. Fifa opened its office in Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan last July.
Such scrutiny intensified during the World Cup. Trump made several calls to Infantino to lobby for a review of US striker Folarin Balogun’s controversial red-card suspension before the Americans’ last-16 match against Belgium. Fifa did reverse Balogun’s ban, but the political circus cast a pall over the US team and drew the ire of other teams and associations from around the world.
Alongside the leaders of Canada and Mexico, Trump joined Infantino for the World Cup trophy presentation after Spain beat Argentina in the final. The pair, who watched the final together in a glassed-in section of luxury seats, were met with boos from the New York New Jersey Stadium crowd when they took the field.
Raskin’s letter references the Department of Justice’s decision to “dismiss the indictments” of defendants in US government investigations into corruption in global soccer, including the 2015 prosecution of more than 20 high-level Fifa officials and sports-marketing executives.
“[Y]our election as Fifa president was supposed to mark a red-card break from a decades-long culture of corruption and scandals that dressed down world soccer’s reputation,” Raskin wrote to Infantino in the letter. “Instead, at the start of your tenure, you dismantled Fifa’s ethical guardrails and disabled the organization’s ethics committee by pushing out most of its members. This lack of transparency and oversight has since paved the way for you to ingratiate yourself with the Trump administration via tactics that a New York University law professor and one of your former ethics committeemen described as ‘legal bribery’.”
The letter also addresses Fifa’s World Cup ticketing policy, which is already the subject of investigations by several attorneys general in the United States. The use of dynamic pricing drew much criticism during the tournament, leading to massive surges and pricing out many fans from attending games.
“The most recent quid pro quo that Fifa and President Trump orchestrated is not a victimless crime. It hurts Americans. Fifa has taken its newfound favored status in the Trump administration as a sign that it may rip off its consumers, most notably, by employing illegal price-gouging and fraudulent sales tactics for the World Cup,” Raskin said in the letter.
The letter gives a deadline of 9 August to provide the requested documents and schedule the interview. Raskin does not have the power to compel Infantino to appear, given that Democrats do not hold the majority in the House, unless he garners Republican support.
Fifa’s interactions with the US government did not end with this summer’s World Cup. The US is expected to be the primary host of the Women’s World Cup in 2031, and the success of this year’s tournament has led many to speculate that the 2038 men’s World Cup could be hosted by the US. Fifa has been approached for comment.
Earlier on Monday, Infantino used a 15-part message on Instagram to denounce his critics, accusing them of spreading hate and false narratives. He touted the World Cup as a success.
More than 200 Fifa members have endorsed Infantino ahead of the presidential election in March, but some associations have stood in opposition. The Norwegian football federation is planning to submit a formal complaint to Fifa ethics investigations over Trump’s role in the reversal of Balogun’s ban.
