# Gianni Infantino Swiss-Italian lawyer and president of **FIFA**, world football's governing body, since February 2016. Previously general secretary of **UEFA**, European football's confederation — the body that would later denounce his handling of the [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]] as "incomprehensible and unjustifiable." ## Background - **Career**: trained as a lawyer in Switzerland; rose through UEFA administration to become its general secretary before winning the FIFA presidency in the February 2016 election held after the corruption scandal that ended Sepp Blatter's tenure. - **Relationship with Trump**: dates to roughly the 2018 award of the 2026 World Cup to the United States, Canada, and Mexico — an eight-year association by the time of the tournament, per Heather Cox Richardson's July 6, 2026 letter. Infantino has been a visible presence around [[Donald Trump]] through the run-up to the 2026 tournament. - **Pattern of intervention**: the Associated Press framed the July 2026 Balogun ruling as the latest in a documented pattern of Infantino interfering with the independence of FIFA's judicial and disciplinary bodies. ## The Balogun Ruling After Trump telephoned him on July 2, 2026 about the suspension of USMNT forward Folarin Balogun, Infantino's public account was procedural: "I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA's independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies." On July 5, those bodies converted the ban into a year of probation. See [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]]. ## See Also - [[FIFA Balogun Intervention]] — the July 2026 ruling and its fallout - [[Donald Trump]] — the president who called him - [[Andrew Giuliani]] — the White House task force director who set the push in motion - [[Rule of Law]] — the frame HCR's letter puts the episode in *Stub — expand with his UEFA tenure, the 2016 post-Blatter election, the Saudi and Club World Cup dealings, and the broader FIFA governance record.*