"RACK AND RUIN!" Simon Jordan INSPECTS Gianni Infantino's SECRET SALARY accusation as FIFA President
Simon Jordan on Infantino's secret salary claims and FIFA accountability
The video discusses allegations that Gianni Infantino received undisclosed payments from FIFA, who can hold him accountable, whether Arsene Wenger could challenge him, and whether the second salary is a conflict of interest. Simon Jordan sees the payment as possibly minor but symptomatic of a wider system and transparency problem, while Emanuel Petit says Wenger understands football but the system is unlikely to change.
- Infantino will ultimately be held accountable by the member associations, because only they can elect him or remove him. — Pressure from the public and other association presidents is limited; the votes are in the hands of the federations.
- The secret salary allegation may itself be small beer, but it adds to a growing negative narrative around Infantino. — Similar controversies keep recurring, and people keep taking advantage of the power and opportunities football offers.
- If the football system keeps producing the same kind of leaders, the problem is the system itself, not just the individuals. — People become intoxicated by influence, power and opportunity, so the same outcomes recur unless the system changes.
- The controversies around Infantino fit the old rule that absolute power corrupts, though people sometimes overstate them. — The real driver of suspicion is FIFA's lack of transparency, communication and openness.
- Wenger has knowledge, intelligence and an understanding of FIFA, so if he challenged Infantino he could push for change from inside. — Wenger was a manager who understands football and has floated reform ideas such as a World Cup every two years.
- The system will not change, and Infantino knows nothing about football, whereas Wenger does. — He says he is not naive and knows the system is entrenched; Wenger understands how football works, unlike Infantino.
- Infantino is not entirely ignorant of football, but compared with Wenger he does not understand how the game itself works. — Wenger knows how what happens on the pitch is curated and created.
- Wenger is probably too old now and is not a realistic candidate. — He could handle the politics and commercial demands intellectually, but he may not have the spirit to want that kind of work.
- A second salary is not automatically a conflict of interest; the key is whether the contract allows it, where the money came from and whether it compromises his role. — One should not assume undue influence simply because he is FIFA president.
- The second salary is reported to break FIFA statutes, so it is not irrelevant; if true, there should be consequences. — The report says it violates FIFA rules, and the internal machinery should provide an explanation or consequence.
Simon Jordan and Jim White discuss the latest on Gianni Infantino being accused of taking a secret salary. Subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/talkSPORT?subconfirmation=1 🏆 Ready to win? Check out the latest prizes at talkSPORTwin.com Enjoyed this YouTube video? 😍 🖥️ talkSPORT's Website: https://talksport.com/ 📲 talkSPORT's X/Twitter: https://x.com/talkSPORT 📷 talkSPORT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talksport/?hl=en 👤 talkSPORT's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkSPORT/ 📱 talkSPORT's Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talksport ? 🔴 Download the talkSPORT app HERE! - https://talksport.com/apps/ 🔎 Want to see if you feature on our YouTube channel? Check out our Best talkSPORT callers playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFVMnSsi04LGLa9pS9xDvme-Gjmlu2 fifa talkSPORT PremierLeague
Transcript
It seems a day hardly goes by and there's not another headline story about Janney Infantino, FIFA president. Martin Ziegler, highly respected sports news reporter of the year in the Times this morning. FIFA paid millions of dollars to Janney Infantino on top of his standard salary and bonus, but didn't publicly declare the payments in an alleged violation of its own statutes. Martin goes on to tell us sources say some of the undisclosed money paid to Infantino was to cover his luxury lifestyle in Miami uh in the running up to the World Cup, including renting a stunning waterfront mansion for tens of thousands of dollars a month. Simon, at what point is Infantino ever going to be taken to task for this kind of behavior which is reported on by top journalists like Ziggler on a semi-regular basis? >> Taken to task by whom? Well, taken to task by the wider public, taken to task by other other presidents of other associations. >> But they are I thought the Norwegian Federation were registering a complaint uh and making an observation about his behavior during the World Cup with the Balagan affair. I think there were a variety. I mean, good things happen or bad things happen when good people don't stand up and do something about it. The federations are the only people uh that can effectively elect him back into office. So, that's where he gets held accountable. Now, I don't know about the mechanics of what he's now being accused of and how that will play out in the great scheme of things. I think it's probably small beer, but it's just another uh circumstance in which the the narrative can build up and the backstory can build up around what kind of individual we we football is a fifom one way or the other. People are always in a situation where they're taking advantage of the opportunity. Um but again it comes down to who's going to stand against him, who is going to put pressure to create an outcome that's different. How do you change the system? Because it's if the system keeps on throwing out people like I've said previously that seem to become intoxicated with the influence, power uh and opportunities that football brings not only for itself but for themselves then if that system keeps on producing the same outcomes then you have to look at the system. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we've seen it before. We saw it with the original, I forget his name, on the FIFA documentary that awarded the World Cup to Argentina in 78. >> And you see avalanche, >> correct? Him and all that went with him. Yeah. >> And so then we've seen all that went with Seth Blatter. Now we're seeing all the controversies and challenges that are coming with Infantino. Of course, it comes with the territory and people will always be along the line of the mantra absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. I do think people are, you know, are over egging the pudding at certain times, but I also think the lack of transparency, the lack of communication, the opakqueness of the organization leads itself to these sort of observations. >> Well, yesterday, I mean, you've just mentioned there Simon, who may or may not stand against him, the elections, FIFA elections for presidency in March. In this very studio yesterday, um, we had one Emanuel Petite and we asked him about his old boss, Arson Wenger, who of course is in a high position at FIFA at this time. Would Venger stand for it, Emanuel? >> I think he has the knowledge of football. He's intelligent as well. He know FIFA is running now. He knows everybody that's important as well into this institution. And I think he he's got some ideas, not the one he present, you know, as soon as he he came into FIFA, you know, um he wanted to get a World Cup every every two two seasons. >> Yeah. >> But uh I think um that's as I said, it's probably a strategy from him, you know, to to get into the top of it and to change probably things. I hope. But I'm not I'm not a kid. I'm not stupid. I'm not naive. I know that the system won't change. And but if Aren can can replace Infantino, he he was a manager, he knows football, Infantino knows nothing. >> Infantino knows nothing. I'm not sure that's entirely true, but I know where Emanuel >> Well, he knows nothing in comparison to Arson Wenger about the mechanics of the actual game itself, how what happens on a field is curated and created. >> Is Arson a realistic candidate in your eyes? >> I think he's probably uh probably too old now. Um and I think that the politics and the commerciality of what might be required will not be beyond him intellectually but might be on be beyond him from the spirit from the spirit of wanting to do that kind of stuff because whilst it's very easy to be judgmental and I think it's absolutely right to be judgmental your leaders should be beyond reproach especially when their sole function in life is to govern a game that's not for profofit rather than turn it into opportunities that exist as much for themselves as supposedly for the fault, but there is a type of person that's required to do those jobs. And it's a lot more complex, a lot more nuance. And it's very easy. It's very, very easy to sit in television studios and to write newspaper articles about how people should operate and how things should be done. But very few people meet up to those standards. Very few people. They are the exception rather than the rule. And so when you see a second salary, I don't know whether his where his contract with FIFA allows that. I don't know where that second salary came from. So does it compromise his position or is it just an irrelevance that actually he's able to do more than one job. He's able to work in more than one space and actually what we're doing is we're saying aha that must mean undue influence. He shouldn't be in a situation where he needs to have an alternate job or more money because that must be conflicting because he would have only have got that opportunity as a result of being the president of >> FIFA. Well, the second salary um reportedly breaks FIFA statute. So no, it's not. It's not really. >> Well, then I'm assuming that there'll be some consequence to it. >> You would think so. You would think. >> I'm assuming that I'm assuming that the internal machinations that work will bring some consequence or will have some explanation to it. But it does feel that there's an element of accountability an accountability to it. But when we look at the overall perspective whilst and I'm not suggesting I'm again I'm not trying to be an apologist but is the state of the World Cup and football per se in some state of wreck and ruin? >> No, it's not. But I mean we do know the backstories around Infantino at this >> we don't like we don't like the Balagan situation more than anything else because that saw undue influence and that should have been stopped very early with Trump and whatever he does. People say no one else would do this. No other country would do this. No, they wouldn't because they don't have Donald Trump as their leader and he has a very different way of operating. And we saw Jesse Marsh the other day talking about the American sense of entitlement being built into their psyche. Where the hell you think the best? >> But I think the key story was the World Cup is not for sale, Janney, >> in spite of what you think. >> No, but but >> and everybody was up in arms about that. >> Sure. But but it's like saying you can't fly a kite. He couldn't do it. He can try to create a situation and give people a reason for doing it and people can read into that, but he couldn't do it autonomously. Yeah. So whether we create this dark story of this hideous golem sitting in a room working out how he can like Baron Greenback out Danger Mouse working out how he can actually change the entire dynamics of the world but he can't do it because he needed to have everybody on board. >> Okay. Um thank you for that. Danger Mouse I didn't think he would get a mention today. I tell you who will get a mention today uh more than once in the next half hour. Daniel Dubois who hopes to win for a second time on Saturday night against Fabio Wardley. Both Wardley and Dubois are on the 17th floor of the news building getting along great apparently just like Simon and me. The two of them will join us live after this bulletin at 12:00 noon.