The Fifa president sought influence with the US leader. Instead, Fifa’s president has entangled football in politics and wounded the game’s credibilityEver since the United States won the rights to co-host the 2026 World Cup, Fifa president Gianni Infantino has worked to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump at all costs, supposedly to secure preferential treatment for Fifa from the American government. Predictably, he suffered the same fate as everyone who has made a Faustian bargain with the US president: he learned that cozying up to Trump always backfires, tarnishing the entire sport along the way.I love soccer because, at its best, it is inclusive, democratic and accessible to everyone. So do billions of other people; the sport’s universal cultural impact truly lends it the potential to be a force for good that “unites the world”, as Fifa loves to say. We saw this force in action at the start of…

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