The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, just wrapped as a genuine commercial triumph — a record-breaking $12 billion in revenue. It also became, by the numbers documented across multiple outlets this summer, one of the most transparently self-dealing relationships between a head of state and an international sports body in recent memory.
HOW CLOSE THIS RELATIONSHIP ACTUALLY IS
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Trump have built what multiple outlets describe as a genuinely close personal bond, on public display for years: Trump held up a red card alongside Infantino in the Oval Office back in 2018, and this cycle escalated dramatically. In December 2025, Infantino created an entirely new award — the FIFA Peace Prize — and gave it to Trump as its first-ever recipient. FIFA also opened an office inside Trump Tower in New York, a property directly owned by the Trump Organization, meaning the sport’s global governing body is now literally a paying tenant of the president’s own real estate business. By Trump’s own admission, he personally intervened to get USMNT player Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension overturned mid-tournament, making him eligible for a knockout-round match — an intervention widely attributed directly to his relationship with Infantino.
THE DEAL THAT TURNED THIS FROM “COZY” TO “CORRUPT”
The real scandal broke when The Times of London reported Infantino was planning to sell stakes in the World Cup itself to private investors — a scheme that could reportedly earn him tens of millions of pounds personally — and confirmed the deal’s proposed lead investor was Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s own son-in-law and sitting Special Envoy for Peace Missions.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats didn’t soften the language at all in their public response: “FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family! Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.” UEFA’s own statement called it a line that “crosses” what’s acceptable, warning: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially.” UEFA reportedly convened an emergency meeting to discuss organized opposition, including a potential boycott. Sepp Blatter — Infantino’s own predecessor, a man whose FIFA presidency ended amid a rampant bribery and corruption scandal so severe it’s the textbook case people cite when they talk about FIFA corruption at all — publicly criticized his successor’s arrangement, saying: “The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football.” When Sepp Blatter is the one warning you’ve gone too far on corruption, that should register.
THE DEAL COLLAPSED. TRUMP DEFENDED HIM ANYWAY.
Facing that level of global backlash, Infantino abandoned the sell-off plan. But rather than quietly walking away, he reportedly tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to reach Trump directly by phone, telling associates he felt “isolated” amid the negative coverage, and scheduled private calls with Secretary of State Rubio as the crisis unfolded — a head of an international sports federation seeking direct diplomatic-level intervention from the U.S. government over his own organization’s internal governance revolt.
Trump didn’t distance himself. He escalated his public support. On Truth Social this week, as FIFA’s global soccer community pushed to potentially remove Infantino from office entirely: “FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino. He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!” Yahoo Sports’ own coverage of the reaction cited an “overpowering stench of corruption” surrounding Trump’s continued defense. Notably, Trump was booed loudly by fans multiple times during his own appearances at World Cup matches this summer — a level of public reaction that hasn’t changed his posture toward Infantino at all.
WHY THIS FITS THE PATTERN ALREADY DOCUMENTED IN THIS NEWSLETTER
This is, structurally, the same shape as several other stories already covered here: the Adani FCPA case dismissed after a $10 billion investment pledge negotiated through a lawyer who also represents Trump personally; the Freedom Fuel mystery, where an unexplained financial arrangement happens to benefit something Trump personally promotes; the $800 million corporate “shakedown” operation documented by the Wall Street Journal. Here, the mechanism is even more direct — a proposed multibillion-dollar deal, funneling potential personal enrichment to the head of a global sports body, with the lead investor being the brother of Trump’s own son-in-law, defended publicly by the president himself the moment it drew serious institutional pushback. Sepp Blatter’s FIFA became a global byword for corruption over exactly this kind of arrangement — money, access, and family connections blurring the line between running a sport and running a racket. His successor appears, by the documented record of this year alone, to be building the same reputation, with an American president actively running interference to make sure it sticks.