Infantile Infantino must get red card

Fifa president Gianni Infantino appears to be a good mate of US President Donald Trump, so no surprise that he thought he could wing it with his own “Art of the Deal” in trying to privatise Fifa.

He tried to keep the deal under the radar and that attempted secrecy got the backs up of most of the world’s football bodies.

The Europeans, particularly, described the proposal as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”.

North and Central American football’s governing body Concacaf went further and called for “a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency”, while slamming Infantino’s “poor governance and leadership”.

In a flip-flop that both Trump and EFF leader Julius Malema would have been proud of, Infantino announced the idea had been consigned to the rubbish bin.

He tried to make out the purity of his motives by noting: “Our purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve.”

Yeah, sure. If you believe that, we’ve got a newly-renovated Reflecting Pool in Washington we’d like to sell you.

Football, as the biggest entertainment, never mind sport, on the planet, has always had a licence to print money.

That has produced a phenomenon of less than talented – but unscrupulously cunning – administrators rising to the top of their national associations and staying there for years… at least if they can’t become part of the Fifa gravy train.

Only half cynically is the ruling body itself sometimes referred to as “Thiefa”.

The partial sell-off of Fifa would, it promised, bring in tens of millions of extra dollars to member federations.

And, it must be said, those federations didn’t get the views of their own membership before they attacked Infantino.

So, maybe a bit peeved they didn’t get a better cut? But, it is difficult to see Infantino avoiding this yellow card turn red and end his Fifa career.