FIFA's Infantino Dodges Resignation Questions With Bald Jokes as World Cup Sell-Off Backfires
Gianni Infantino's response to the biggest crisis of his presidency was to compliment a reporter's haircut.
The 56-year-old Fifa president was stopped outside a hotel in the Dominican Republic by Sky News' US correspondent James Matthews, who asked whether he had "betrayed the game of football." Infantino's reply: "You have a nice haircut. Thank you so much." As he climbed into a waiting black car, Matthews pressed again — why would he not resign, given calls from fans and Fifa associations? "I'll see you at the hairdressers," Infantino said, according to The Guardian.
The gag lands, or doesn't, on one detail: both men are bald. Sky News ran the exchange under the headline "Gianni Infantino likes a baldy joke, but fans will see it as bare-faced cheek" Sky News.
The questions he walked away from are serious. Infantino proposed spinning off Fifa's commercial businesses into a $20 billion subsidiary, with 20% owned by private investors — effectively selling a slice of the World Cup itself to Wall Street-style capital (Associated Press). The plan sparked what the Hollywood Reporter called an unprecedented backlash threatening his grip on power (Hollywood Reporter). Three continental confederations accused him of "deception" over the private-investment plans. Uefa — European football's governing body — threatened to boycott Fifa competitions, saying it had "lost confidence" in Infantino's leadership The Guardian.
The sell-off has since been aborted. Infantino was in the Dominican Republic attending a junior tournament, which The Guardian reported he views as a potential route out of the crisis (The Guardian. For the president of world football's governing body, the moment was stripped to its essence: confronted with anger from the people who run the game on three continents, he chose a quip about hair he and his interviewer do not have.
What makes this land awkwardly is the gap between the question and the answer. Matthews asked whether football had been betrayed. Infantino talked about the hairdressers. The fans and associations demanding his resignation now have a clip that does the arguing for them — footage of their president, stepping into a black car, grinning, offering nothing at all.
