{"id":26350,"date":"2026-08-03T18:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26350"},"modified":"2026-08-03T18:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:26:33","slug":"gianni-infantino-turns-to-trump-in-bid-to-save-his-job-rpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26350","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino Turns to Trump in Bid to Save His Job: Rpt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5711956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5711956\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5711956\" src=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump, Gianni Infantino\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5711956\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(AP Photo\/Chris Carlson, File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>FIFA President <strong>Gianni Infantino<\/strong> has reportedly turned to President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> in a bid to save his job as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/fifa-president-gianni-infantinos-future-in-question-as-world-cup-investment-plan-scrapped\/\">pressure mounts<\/a> after\u00a0his proposed bid to spin off the organization\u2019s commercial assets to private investors.<\/p>\n<p>Infantino is set to hold private talks with Secretary of State <strong>Marco Rubio<\/strong>, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/03\/business\/fifas-infantino-begs-trump-admin-to-save-his-job\/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">exclusive report from the <em>New York Post<\/em><\/a>, which cited two sources who claimed the soccer chief scheduled a call with Rubio for shortly after 9 a.m. ET on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted to get online with the secretary and talk about how soccer can be a form of soft power for America,\u201d one source briefed on the matter told the newspaper. \u201cBut we all know that it is about job protection. It is not about anything else at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A second source also panned the move to <em>The Post<\/em> and added: \u201cHe is looking for allies of note to publicly support him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Infantino has also repeatedly attempted to contact Trump by phone since the investment proposal collapsed on Friday, but has been unable to reach him, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>The failed plan would have transferred FIFA\u2019s broadcasting, sponsorship, licensing and ticketing businesses into a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise.<\/p>\n<p>Thrive Capital, an investment firm led by <strong>Josh Kushner<\/strong>, brother of Trump\u2019s son-in-law <strong>Jared Kushner<\/strong>, was expected to acquire a 20% stake in the venture for just over $4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal, first reported by <em>The Times of London<\/em>, drew <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/sports\/nearly-100-countries-have-already-rejected-fifa-presidents-plan-to-sell-off-world-cup-stakes-to-private-investors\/\">fierce opposition<\/a> from soccer federations, many of which reportedly learned of the discussions through media reports rather than FIFA itself.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Post<\/em> also reported that the fallout has sparked an internal campaign against Infantino\u2019s leadership, with one FIFA executive describing an effort to remove him from office under the nickname \u201cProject Kill The Monster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kevin Lamour<\/strong>, FIFA\u2019s chief operating officer, added to the turmoil on Friday when he told the Associated Press he felt \u201cdeceived\u201d by Infantino\u2019s handling of the negotiations, saying he had not been aware of the private talks.<\/p>\n<p>The leadership crisis also widened internationally.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, UEFA, the European soccer federation, voted unanimously to boycott future FIFA-organized competitions, including the men\u2019s 2030 World Cup in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(AP Photo\/Chris Carlson, File) FIFA President Gianni Infantino has reportedly turned to President Donald Trump in a bid to save his job as pressure mounts after\u00a0his proposed bid to spin off the organization\u2019s commercial assets to private investors. Infantino is set to hold private talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to an exclusive&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25350626612200-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}