Gianni Infantino aims dig at British football fans in speech to world leaders

FIFA president Gianni Infantino made a joke about British football fans’ behaviour and defended ticket prices for this summer’s World Cup in North America during a speech to world leaders on Thursday.

The Swiss addressed concerns around the staging of this summer’s finals in the United States amid rising domestic tensions there in an address at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, citing how there had been “a lot of critics” in the build-up to the Qatar finals in 2022.

“When the ball started rolling and the magic started we had virtually no incidents. For the first time in history also, no Brit was arrested during a World Cup. Imagine! This is something really, really special,” he said.

“So it was a celebration, it was a party, and the next one in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be exactly the same. People want occasions to meet, to come together, to spend time, to celebrate, and this is what we try to give them.”

Infantino said the finals would be “the greatest celebration of humanity”, despite human rights groups voicing concerns about a number of the policies adopted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

In response to the FIFA president’s comments, the Football Supporters’ Association said: “While we’ve got Mr Infantino’s attention, we’d like to point out that rather than making cheap jokes about our fans, he should concentrate on making cheap tickets.”

Infantino did go on to address criticism around ticket prices in his speech.

FIFA said it had received more than 500 million requests for tickets during the most recent application window which ended on January 13. The second-cheapest category of tickets for the final cost 4,185 US dollars (£3,100), with only a tiny percentage available in the cheapest, 40-dollar category, leading to intense criticism.

“The tickets are not cheap. We were hammered. I was hammered, I should say, because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive,” he said.

“And the main critics were from Germany and England, of course.

“Now, number one in ticket requests is the US. Number two, Germany, number three, England, because everyone wants to come and to participate.”

FIFA has not released details of how the demand for tickets is spread between the 104 matches or cost categories, but Infantino confidently stated: “Every match will be sold out.”

He added that because of FIFA’s ticket resale platform, “those tickets will probably be resold at even higher prices”.

“This is incredible, but it shows really the impact that it has,” he added.

“To give you another number, to compare this in 100 years of World Cup history, FIFA has sold around 50 million tickets in total. For this World Cup, in these four weeks we have the request for 1,000 years of World Cups at once.

“This is unique, it’s incredible, but I think it shows really that people have trust in the organisation, probably trust in FIFA as well. Trust in Canada, Mexico, the United States. They want to travel. They want to go.”

Infantino said reports fans from certain countries could be denied visas to enter the United States were “not true”.

Spectators from Haiti, Iran and Senegal in particular are expected to struggle to be granted entry to the US, but Infantino said: “The United States, about Canada and about Mexico will welcome the world next summer, and this is what we are looking forward to.”