FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s late arrival from the Middle East, where he joined U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, forced a delay in opening FIFA’s annual meeting of 211 member federations on Thursday.
Infantino’s flight in a Qatari private jet to Paraguay from Doha, via a stop in Nigeria, was still in the air at the 9:30 a.m. local time (1230 GMT) scheduled start of the meeting he was to address in Asunción.
The flight eventually landed about one hour before the meeting got started more than three hours late.
It later led to early departures from the meeting by senior European officials on FIFA's ruling council, including UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin. It was unclear if their exits were due to scheduled travel plans or a protest at Infantino's lateness.
Infantino apologized to his audience several times, citing issues with his flight for the delay and insisting it was important he represented soccer at the political meetings in the Middle East.
“As president of FIFA my responsibility is to make decisions in the interests of the organization," Infantino said. "I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.”
Officials from the national federations have gathered in Paraguay all week for one of their last major meetings before the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Paraguay President Santiago Peña was there to deliver his opening speech hours later than scheduled and praised Infantino as “a personal friend and a friend of Paraguay.”
Peña previously said in January he took credit for suggesting to Infantino that FIFA bring a major event to Paraguay, which is set to host one of the 104 games at the men's World Cup in 2030 being mostly co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
FIFA ties to Trump
Infantino opted to join Trump on the first legs of the tour instead of meeting with his voting members. Qatar hosted the men’s World Cup in 2022 and Saudi Arabia will host in 2034.
On Wednesday in Doha, Qatar’s ruling Emir — a fellow member of the International Olympic Committee with Infantino — hosted the visiting delegations at a state dinner at Lusail Palace.
Infantino has built close ties to both Trump administrations, and was inside the Capitol rotunda in January for the formal presidential inauguration ceremony.
Trump is set to present the trophy at the finals in New Jersey of both the Club World Cup in July and the World Cup next year. The Club World Cup trophy was in the Congress room Thursday. The trophy has spent much of the past weeks in the Oval Office at the White House.
Early exits
With the meeting running so far late, some delegates did not return to the convention hall after a mid-meeting coffee break.
Empty seats then on the main stage reserved for the 37-member FIFA Council chaired by Infantino included those from European soccer body UEFA, including its president Ceferin and Debbie Hewitt, the head of England's soccer federation who holds the FIFA vice presidency reserved for British members.
Still on stage with Infantino was the most senior Paraguayan official in world soccer, Alejandro Dominguez, the FIFA vice president and head of South American soccer body CONMEBOL.
2030 World Cup
Paraguay being included in the 2030 World Cup project has been seen as a win in FIFA politics for Dominguez. The 100th birthday World Cup will see single games in the opening week in June 2030 also played in Argentina, the 2022 champion, and Uruguay, the inaugural 1930 host.
A recent CONMEBOL proposal to expand the 2030 tournament to 64 teams — double the size of the 2022 edition in Qatar, with more games in South America — has been opposed by leaders of other soccer regions, include Ceferin in Europe, Asia and North America.
Dominguez made a speech to the Congress that hinted at thinking bigger for 2030, without directly promoting the 64-team plan.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
