FIFA President Gianni Infantino reportedly reached out to Donald Trump’s administration following the abandonment of a contentious project involving the sale of FIFA World Cup commercial rights. According to a New York Post report, Infantino attempted to contact the US President by phone multiple times after the proposal fell through on Friday.
The abandoned initiative aimed to shift approximately 20 percent of commercial rights for FIFA events into a new entity supported by private equity, with the goal of securing $4.2 billion. However, significant pushback from stakeholders forced the organization to scrap the plan. This failure has triggered concerns regarding Infantino’s leadership and his prospects for a re-election bid for the 2027–2031 cycle.
Infantino and Trump have cultivated a visible alliance, recently highlighted by the FIFA president awarding Trump the inaugural Peace Prize in December 2025. The failed investment proposal was reportedly tied to Thrive Capital, an investment firm started by Joshua Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law. Although reports suggested Infantino planned to speak with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Dylan Johnson, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, denied that any such conversation was scheduled.
