Infantino meets Colombian FA chief in Bogota ahead of presidential inauguration
Gianni Infantino stepped off a plane in Bogota on Friday and was met on the runway by Ramon Jesurun, the president of the Colombian Football Federation, ahead of the inauguration of Colombia's new president Abelardo de la Espriella.
He was accompanied to the ceremony by Alejandro Dominguez, president of Conmebol. The visit came amid the fallout from the aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal, for which Infantino apologised, and while he appears to be attempting to resume normal duties despite lingering criticism.
Earlier in the week a convoy of blacked-out Mercedes, flanked by police vehicles, arrived at Fifa headquarters in Rabat where Infantino had summoned a select group of Fifa management board members to discuss his plan to sell 21% of the commercial and ticketing business to a private equity firm. The Fifa controversy developed while Infantino was based in Rabat over the past week. His travel arrangements include use of the Qatar Airways Executive jet, which the article says enabled him to take up to three flights a day and to watch two games throughout the 2026 World Cup.
The Fifa president’s official responsibilities, as described in the piece, include visiting the 211 member associations to inspect grassroots projects and attending confederation meetings and global tournaments in order to try to unify the sport; the article says that work cannot be achieved from Fifa’s Zurich headquarters alone. Requests for level-four motorcade treatment were turned down by local authorities before the Fifa Congress in Vancouver, and New Zealand police rejected a similar request during the 2023 Women's World Cup, the source reports.
The report sets out Infantino’s pay and allowances: he was paid about £1.3m ten years ago and now receives about £4m, composed of a base salary of £2.2m and a confirmed variable bonus payment of £1.8m. His predecessor, Sepp Blatter, received a £2.6m package in his final year, and Infantino also receives a per diem worth £20,500 a year, according to the article. The piece states Infantino would argue his record revenues and funding for member associations justify his remuneration.
The article details Infantino’s high-profile association with US President Donald Trump, including a diplomatic tour of the Middle East in May 2025 during which Infantino arrived two hours late for the Fifa Congress in Paraguay, prompting Uefa to accuse him of prioritising "private political interests" and stage a walk-out. It records that Fifa awarded a Peace Prize to Trump weeks before the US invaded Venezuela to depose president Nicolas Maduro and launched air attacks on Iran, that Infantino made a surprise appearance at the inaugural meeting of Trump's Board of Peace, and that the IOC said its rules on political neutrality had not been breached.
Media access and Fifa communications are also covered: the article says Infantino has held two news conferences in the past four years, both lasting an hour and held before the start of the World Cup, and otherwise appears mainly in Fifa-produced interviews. Before the World Cup he told critics to "just, you know, chill, relax" about Somali referee Omar Artan being denied entry to the USA at Miami Airport, and a Fifa statement issued on Wednesday offered contrition while asserting Fifa would "no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process".
Before the World Cup the article states 111 member associations had declared for Infantino, a total that would have guaranteed re-election, but it says the picture is now uncertain after the failed private investment plan. Uefa, the piece reports, sees the moment as an opportunity to force him to step down, but his attendance at the Colombian president's inauguration is presented as evidence that removing him may be difficult; Uefa’s threat to boycott Fifa tournaments will be tested with the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Poland in 29 days.
