BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI | It is shameful that African football is backing Infantino

The empty suits at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) this week bucked the international trend and came out swinging in defence of the embattled Gianni Infantino, the crafty, corrupt and conceited president of Fifa.

In a statement on Thursday, the organisation’s executive committee was unwavering in expressing its unstinting support for Infantino. “The CAF exco also unanimously reconfirmed its support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino and thanked him for his support for African football over the years,” it said.

Such words would have come as sweet music to the ears of Infantino, who has been under an international onslaught since the story broke last week that he intended to sell a significant slice of the World Cup to private investors led by American billionaire Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Those taken aback by the revelation included members of Fifa’s council, the organisation’s main decision-making body, who claim not to have been consulted on a matter of such magnitude.

Reaction was swift and vehement. Within two days, Europe’s Uefa, the richest and most powerful bloc in Fifa, threatened to boycott all Fifa activities unless the sell-off was abandoned. The Asian and North American confederations followed suit, but stopped short of calling for a boycott.

Initially Infantino tried to tough it out, but a day later he threw in the towel, saying “mistakes were made”. Infantino was expected to be elected unopposed at next year’s Fifa congress in Rabat. But the outrage in football circles has been so fierce that his critics are calling for his head now.

The outcry goes beyond football, with the Canadian and British prime ministers effectively calling on the Fifa president to resign. But it’s no surprise that Infantino thought it within his rights to sell off the family silver, as it were. He’s been buccaneering unhindered for far too long, with the so-called football fraternity, including his belated critics, cheering him on.

Fifa awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia, which helped Vladimir Putin burnish his image. And lately Infantino has been leading a campaign to lift the sports boycott imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Saudi Arabia won a fast-tracked and uncontested process for the 2034 World Cup, clearly aimed at helping one of the most ruthless regimes to sportswash its image.

The recently concluded World Cup in the US was arguably the most successful, and certainly the most profitable, in years, but it was not without controversy. Infantino’s fingerprints were all over it — from the reversal of an American player’s red card at the urging of Donald Trump to hydration breaks midway through each half, which players and officials detested, to the 30-minute music extravaganza during halftime of the final.

Why do we always behave as if we don’t belong and that we’re so grateful to be allowed a seat at the top table?

Soccer was entertainment, Infantino told his critics. They should “just chill”. Even before the tournament started, he presented the so-called Fifa Peace Prize to Trump, a man who was spraying insults across the globe as he accepted the trophy. Trump loomed large over the tournament. Unbeknownst to some of his closest allies, the Fifa president was busy attracting rich American investors to his now-doomed money-making scheme.

Fifa and corruption have always been bedfellows. For instance, who can forget the chicanery of a certain Charles Dempsey, the New Zealander and Oceania representative who, defying his federation, abstained from voting, thus denying South Africa the opportunity to host the 2006 World Cup? Germany went on to win and host the tournament. And our national pride at having hosted a successful 2010 World Cup was later dampened by reports that money had changed hands.

Such shenanigans go back a long way. João Havelange, the Brazilian who ruled Fifa with an iron fist for 24 years, was implicated in a multimillion-dollar bribery scandal, which also involved his son-in-law. Sepp Blatter, his protégé, was forced out as Fifa president amid another corruption scandal. Infantino was not expected to succeed Blatter. The man earmarked for the job was Michel Platini, the French soccer legend who was Uefa president. He too was felled by his own scandals. Infantino saw the gap and took it, promising to run a clean ship. But he seems to have outperformed his predecessor.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe said after the World Cup that Infantino was a “good friend” of African football. The Fifa president has eagerly worked the room. When Spain and Portugal submitted a bid for the 2030 World Cup, Infantino encouraged the two countries to include Morocco as a sign of solidarity between Europe and Africa. And he’s almost made Morocco one of his many homes. This week’s Fifa executive meeting to rally support for him was held in Rabat, as will be next year’s congress to anoint him for another term. Before the Wafcon game between Zambia and Malawi this week, he was seen posing for pictures with officials from the two countries.

But what does all this amount to? I can’t recall seeing African referees officiating at the World Cup, except as linesmen. And where was our good friend when Omar Artan, the Somali referee, was sent packing from the US for no reason other than that he’s from a country not to Trump’s liking? Or when the Senegal national team was forced to undergo humiliating public searches on the tarmac? Our good friend couldn’t even reach out to his buddy in the White House.

By always offering our gratitude to or ingratiating ourselves with Infantino, we’re making out that he’s doing us a favour. He has gone out of his way to offer us some crumbs, but that’s his job. Besides, Africa’s 54 votes are crucial to his re-election. Why then do we always behave as if we don’t belong and that we’re so grateful to be allowed a seat at the top table? And by hitching a ride so firmly on his wagon, what happens if he loses?

Broadly speaking, it’s about time African leaders in all spheres forsook their penchant for always associating themselves with unsavoury characters if they’re interested in progress on the continent.