Saudi prince refuses to meet FIFA president (video)

2 hours ago

At the closing ceremony of the eSports World Cup in Paris, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman refused to greet FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

A video published by SaudiNews shows an interesting incident. While Mohammed bin Salman was walking with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Grand Palais in Paris, Gianni Infantino also passed him. Macron approached the FIFA president and shook his hand. However, the prince did not see the need to meet Infantino, so he walked around him and went straight to Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

There are specific reasons for this cold attitude. FIFA had previously planned to set up a subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) and sell a 25% stake to external investors for $4.2 billion. In response, UEFA and all 55 of its member associations threatened to boycott FIFA competitions.

In addition, UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) issued a joint statement demanding an independent investigation into Infantino's actions. The confederations described the FIFA president's plan as a "complete breach of trust" in the organization's institutions. Although the AFC expressed its solidarity with the rest of the organization on this issue, some members of the organization (in particular, Indonesia, the Philippines and Qatar) supported Infantino.

Notably, Saudi Arabia, a member of the AFC, is expected to host the 2034 World Cup. This will be the third World Cup in Asia (after 2002 and 2022) and the second in the Gulf countries. On the eve of such a major tournament, the cold relations between the country's leadership and the FIFA president have attracted the attention of many.

For information, Gianni Infantino has been leading FIFA since 2016 and has announced his intention to run again in the elections to be held in March next year.