Early Bird: Jack Warner bids to block Infantino from organizing World Cup—will Fifa president trump him?

Exhilarating as the current 48-team World Cup tournament has been, it failed to excite my football-loving fo’daymorning walk partner.

Cape Verde as a team and Vozinha as an individual did. At moments. As did France with their handful of fleet-footed, twinkle-toed front-runners and eventual Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappé.

But not highly fancied Argentina or eventual champions Spain—not Egypt, not England, not Norway.

Not Cristiano Ronaldo, not Lionel Messi, not Harry Kane. Not even Lamine Yamal or Jude Bellingham or Erling Haaland.

The Eusebio of 1966 or the Maradona of 1986 or the Michel Platini of the same year might have had a chance—the Pelé of any vintage certainly would have.

For the most part, however, these “overpaid, over-rated and overbearing 21st Century shooting stars on show” left football-loving Bobby largely cold.

All he was able to “tolerate” before the weekend’s last two games was packaged highlights of the handful of games on which he got a positive word-of-mouth report.

So, looking forward to another 48-team tournament in 2030? Ha!

“13, 16, 24, 32, 48,” I greeted him this morning. “Where is the World Cup going next time?”

Possibly listening with one ear or less, he responded to my question without answering it.

“Morocco, Portugal and Spain.”

“Well,” I clued him in, “the current plan is to include six countries on three continents. But the number of teams is unlikely to be 48.”

“Thank God!” he exclaimed. “In that case, I might watch!”

“Not if Infifantino has his way,” I said. “He’s thinking about 64 teams.”

In case you didn’t know, 30 July 2030 marks a special anniversary. On that day 100 years earlier, home side Uruguay beat Argentina 2-1 in the first-ever World Cup final to register the first lien on the coveted trophy.

Fifa want to celebrate the anniversary in a unique way. Morocco, Portugal and Spain will co-host, yes. But they want to play a few games in Uruguay, home of the first winners, in Paraguay, where Conmebol have their headquarters, and in Argentina, home of the 1930 runners-up and the 2022 champions…

Bobby interrupted.

“Hmmmmmmmmm. I see. So what the conspiracy theorists are saying makes plenty sense. How convenient it would have been for Argentina to become the 2026 champions!”

“The conspiracy theories are a pack of crap, breds. You really think is possible to rig a 104-match tournament?”

“Me?” he shot back. “No. But plenty, plenty people do. Check the Internet.”

Me: “I from Trinidad, breds, Jack Warner country. And I down here long. I know Fifa corrupt. I know about the Haiti 1974 robbery. I know how T&T end up in a playoff in Bahrain to reach the 2006 World Cup. I know about the Haiti 2010 earthquake money. I know about the Mohammed Bin Hamman US cash in paper bags.

“But I also know it take plenty, plenty more than a phone call between corrupt pals to rig a World Cup. I read or listen to something like 100 stories, looking for hard evidence of a Fifa plot. I shared a lot of them with you. Allegations, accusations, charges, innuendoes, plenty finger-pointing. Tons of circumstantial evidence. But that’s it! Nothing that will stand up in court.”

Only two stories, I explained, gave me serious pause.

On Spanish television, a celebrity let slip that the day before the Egypt game he had been asked to present the Player-of-the-Match award for that game.

“To present the award,” he said, “to Messi.”

Corroboration? Zilch!

And on English television, one member of a post-match panel that included Alan Shearer said he had no doubt referees had so far treated Messi differently. But, he said, he put that down not to Fifa instructions but to big-player bias.

He styled it ‘subconscious bias.’ His argument reminded me of the explanation my now late brother once offered for why judges in boxing tend to not give challengers points wins over champions.

Bobby: “So you’re saying you don’t think Fifa wanted Argentina to win?”

Me: “What I think, what I know is that whichever team won on Sunday was the best team in the 2026 World Cup. And that is how it should be. The four top-ranked teams all reached the semis and finished 2, 1, 4, 3. Fifa fix that?”

Bobby: “Well, for plenty people, the answer is yes. They unhappy. Fans unhappy, players unhappy, coaches unhappy, entire confederations unhappy enough to put their dissatisfaction, their objections to certain things in writing.

“They all seem to think Fifa corrupt. They complained about Fifa-approved price gouging. Five and six-thousand-plus US dollars for semi-final and final tickets.

“They complained about the refereeing. About VAR. About fans not getting visas, about US immigration turning back the Somali referee. They complained about Messi getting special treatment. They complained about Infifantino licking Trump ass.”

Me: “Complain, breds? Unhappy?

“Jack Warner unhappy. He want Infantino to step down. That mean Infantino do something wrong?”

“Well, he ent have dem to study. Or Jack, Dr Warner. He busy organizing the special 2030 edition. And he only making more enemies, it look like.”

An #OLaFinalONada petition is now circulating online collecting signatures. It’s part of a campaign to push the Spanish Football Association to refuse to co-host the next World Cup.

Organisers contend that Fifa is considering changing the plans for the final. It’s currently supposed to be played in Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Since his success with the Folarin Balogun red card, they contend, Trump is pushing for Fifa to move the final to Casablanca—that’s where Morocco is currently building the Grand Stade Hassan II. The capacity of this spanking new stadium will be, reports say, 115,000 seats.

 

“Normally, the Fifa president will let you grease his palm. But twist his arm? No way, José. Normally, he is the lickee. But with this US president, Infifatino is the licker!

“So Jack just jealous. He running he mouth now, saying Infifantino disgracing the organization and he should step down.”

Bobby: “Jack says he’s making Fifa ‘all about money’.”

Me: “Priceless! That from a man who allegedly requested and received $450,000 for his 2022 World Cup vote and who we know distributed literal paper bags of money to Caribbean Football Union members.

“And who take money, don’t forget, out of the mouths of poor, suffering people in Haiti.”

Bobby: “Well, he says he’s organizing a campaign to unseat Infifantino.”

Me: “JAW living in a bubble, oui. He cyar even unseat Colin Gosine in Chaguanas West if he try. He had power yesterday because power used to come out of an overflowing bank account. But America dam all he outflows!”

Bobby: “Hahaha.”

Me: “Anyway, Jack organizing to get rid ah Infantino have nutten to do with football—is about freedom. He waiting to collect taxpayer money from he extradition case so he could buy a pardon inn America. But what you call him? Infifantino give DJT the Peace Prize and let him hand over the World Cup, Trump only have ears for the Fifa boss.”

Bobby: “So it wouldn’t be a surprise if Infifantino announce that they considering staging the 2038 or 2042 Donald J Trump World Cup in the US…”

Me: “…with the announcement coming, of course, before the November midterms!”