Every time the FIFA football family communicated with their mothership, it was from the Züriberg, the huge headquarters next to the zoo. But meanwhile, even the mail from Zurich doesn’t seem to come. In any case, ex-Fifa chairman Sepp Blatter (86) sees it that way, the fallen football pope, who is following a World Cup in the living room for the first time, but apparently still has some internals fluttering: “It is interesting that the official documents related to the FIFA Election Congress have been sent to the national associations from Doha – and not from the headquarters in Zurich,” the Walliser said on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, rumors of FIFA’s desire to rein it in persist. However often President Gianni Infantino (52) publicly assures that moving is not an issue (“Fifa stays in Zurich”), Blatter is convinced to the contrary: “It is a fact that Infantino wants to leave Zurich with FIFA in the open secret.” Blatter , at times the most prominent Swiss, was recently acquitted of corruption along with Michel Platini (67).
Full move to Paris?
As for the Fifa exodus, this is more than a rumor as many have already disappeared. First and foremost the president himself. Infantino has quietly moved the center of his life to Qatar. And not only him, his family has also moved, as Sunday’s Blick announced at the beginning of the year. FIFA’s competition department has also left, and last autumn it moved to Paris, to the Hôtel de la Marine, a beautiful palace. “By the way, in a building that belongs to the Emir of Qatar,” Blatter explains readily.
However, there are strong arguments against a full move to Paris, where FIFA was founded. Football Association bystanders have been heard to fear the Grande Nation’s rigid wage protections. The FIFA staff would then enjoy de facto tenure, which is perhaps not in the mind of a club that has also achieved some notoriety for turnover and ejection seat positions.
The football officials could also settle elsewhere. Well-informed circles report that the FIFA sponsorship and marketing division will be outsourced to the US as early as next year. New York was in the game for a long time, now the tax-friendly state of Delaware is preferred. For the US, the employment contracts of FIFA employees would have already been changed.
When asked about all this, the communication department says: nothing.
The 2026 World Cup will take place in the US, among other places. Following the logic of his move to Qatar, football king Infantino could come up with a similar justification for his choice of a US location as he did with Qatar. He has already stated this publicly.
The man, who is very likely to be re-elected next year without opposition, is said to have had a difficult relationship with his homeland.
His irritating speech yesterday, in which he accused the media of hypocrisy, was profound: “I am the son of guest workers, my parents worked hard in Switzerland. I had red hair, freckles, was bullied, excluded.”
Proceedings against Infantino
Attentive fans must have noticed how much Infantino, as UEFA general secretary, liked to emphasize his Italianità. The world recognized him as an Italian. It wasn’t until he became FIFA president that he suddenly seemed to remember the Swiss idiom. In this country, the man from Doha has problems with the judiciary and a trial is still pending against him in Bern. Although one can “forget the Swiss judiciary in this context – it is part of the problem”, Mark Pieth, former Fifa chief reformer and Swiss anti-corruption expert, criticizes this week in the “Schweizer Illustrierte”.
Corruption hunter Pieth has an anecdote ready for possible relocation wishes. When he was on the ethics committee ten years ago, he scoffed at Fifa officials: “If you don’t like Swiss law, you can emigrate to Qatar.” Reality has caught up with him now.