MADRID, 16 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, affirmed this Thursday that “negative situations” such as the ‘Negreira case’ “are going to be analyzed to see how it can be solved”, at the same time that he assured that he is “concerned” and “it is not good for football.”
“When there are negative situations, we are concerned. Clubs, especially the big ones, do a lot for football, not only in their country or city, but in the whole world. We are all human and we all make mistakes, they are going to be analyzed, in Spain, for example, to see how it can be solved”, Infantino told the press after being re-elected as FIFA president until 2027, with the almost unanimous support of the member federations during the organization’s Congress in Kigali (Rwanda).
The president compared what happened with the payments by FC Barcelona to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira with the “crisis” of fixing in Italy. “It’s not good for football, we all have to give a positive push. The important thing is to understand and find solutions,” he added.
During the press conference, Infantino also addressed the racist insults against Real Madrid’s Brazilian striker Vinicius Júnior, to whom he showed all his “solidarity”. “With the system we have, each organizer is responsible for the incidents that happen in their competitions. FIFA makes social media monitoring available to the players to eliminate insults and negative messages,” he explained.
“For what happens on the field, we decided that the referees have not only the possibility, but the obligation to stop the games if there are racist insults. What we all have to do has to do with education,” he stressed about the protocols that should be executed in these situations.
The president of world soccer’s highest governing body began the press conference by addressing the media directly, which he described as “cruel” for the criticism against him and FIFA itself. “We have worked very hard at FIFA, we don’t steal, we don’t profit. I’m a football administrator, that’s my philosophy, and I don’t know why I’m criticized. We think the way we do our job is the right way.” , defended.
“Soccer is for its protagonists, the president of FIFA is not the protagonist. Every time they talk about FIFA they only talk about money, that it is a rich organization, but FIFA is about soccer. It tires me a bit. Someone told me He said that FIFA was the ‘Robin Hood’ of football, but we don’t steal from the rich, we commercialize, we also give to the poor so they can grow. They criticize FIFA to get free publicity,” he said.
Finally, Infantino valued the possible controversial Saudi sponsorship for the Women’s World Cup this summer, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand, and lamented the “double standards” with this option. “The commercial relationship between Australia and Saudi Arabia does not seem to be a problem. We want to involve sponsors from Saudi Arabia and other countries in women’s football,” she argued.