November 5 – After a blue wave in the US midterm elections, FIFA president Gianni Infantino could be forced to answer questions about his ties to US President Donald Trump or face criminal consequences.
Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate in the mid-term of the United States, which turned out to be a major rebuke of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. It could also have serious consequences for the embattled Infantino.
In July, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they had launched an investigation into Infantino’s close relationship with Trump, demanding that Infantino produce documents and appear before the Committee. In September, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Committee said Infantino’s and FIFA’s level of cooperation with the investigation had been “woefully inadequate.”
The spokesman said: “FIFA has yet to hand over any of the priority documents requested by the committee, including those that show how much money FIFA has given to the Trump family, answer key questions about the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize or explain how the Kushner-Infantino plan to sell the World Cup was conceived.”
Democrats were the minority party on the Committee at the time, with no subpoena power. However, this situation has changed after the mid-term elections.
In a statement, Jamie Raskin said, “The political and financial corruption that is driving the Trump presidency is a civic emergency. Congress has a responsibility to confront all of this corruption head-on, expose it, and take all necessary steps to crush it as soon as possible.”
On CNN on Wednesday, Raskin expanded that this would also include those in Trump’s orbit.
Infantino has come under constant pressure to resign following his plans to privatize the World Cup. Infantino intended to sell a minority stake in the flagship competition to private equity and Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
European confederation UEFA has repeatedly said Infantino crossed a red line and wants to sack him. Until now, UEFA has struggled to gain enough support outside of Europe.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at (email protected)