FIFA President Gianni Infantino aimed a bizarre dig at British football fans during a speech on Thursday, just months before England and Scotland fans are set to attend the 2026 World Cup.
Both nations from the United Kingdom are among the 42 countries to have already qualified for the summer tournament. There is even potential for Wales and Northern Ireland to join them, as they battle it out in the semi-finals of their qualifying campaign.
Even if they do not make it to the tournament, both the Three Lions and Tartan Army will be well represented by their travelling fans, particularly the latter. They will be making their first appearance at a World Cup since 1998, with their supporters likely to enjoy the occasion as much as possible.
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However, Infantino chose to make a joke at the expense of England and Scotland fans while addressing world leaders on Thursday. The FIFA president was addressing concerns around the tournament, with domestic tensions rising within the United States.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Infantino gave three separate speeches. He acknowledged the ongoing dialogue at one point, but then held up a football and said: “This is not a ball. Let me show you… this is a magic instrument that transforms people into happy people.
“Give the ball around a little bit, to the crowd, and you will see it transforms people into happy people. This is what this strange instrument does. The children’s faces become happy. The adults become children. They start playing, passing the ball… look, the smiles all over the room. This is fantastic, this is beautiful.”
Later on, he then went on to address any worries fans might have, using Qatar 2022 as a way to respond to critics. He said: “Qatar in 2022, there were a lot of critics, of course. We had virtually no incidents.
“For the first time in history, also, no Brit was arrested during the World Cup. Imagine! This is something really, really special. It was a celebration, it was a party. And the next one, in the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be exactly the same. Of course, we live in a divided world, and of course we support peace. We all have to support peace, we all have to unite. And we bring people together.”
Infantino Also Addressed Criticism of World Cup Ticket Prices
Following his joke about the behaviour of British football fans, Infantino was then hit with criticism from the Football Supporters’ Association. They chose to focus on ticket prices for matches at the tournament, stating: “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.”
FIFA were criticised for the expensive prices that they set, but Infantino chose to hit back at the comment later on. He said: “The tickets are not cheap. We were hammered. I was hammered, I should say, because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive. And the main critics were from Germany and England, of course. Now, No 1 in ticket requests is the US. No 2, Germany, No 3, England, because everyone wants to come and to participate.”
Football’s governing body has said that they have received 500 million requests for tickets during the most recent application window. But they have not disclosed how demand has been spread between the 104 matches or cost categories. Nevertheless, Infantino insisted that there would be no empty seats at any of the games, stating: “Every match will be sold out.”
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