Before the World Cup kicks off in Mexico City on Thursday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is fending off concern over potential via issues for players and officials entering the United States.
Infantino said FIFA is focused on being a “sports organization” and would not intervene in helping the U.S. determine approvals for entry into the country.
“We try always to find solutions, always,” Infantino said Wednesday in a World Cup news conference in Mexico City. “But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces and I don’t know what. We are a sports organization, we try to do our best with the means that we have.”
Without detailing circumstances or sharing knowledge of any context behind the U.S. denying entry to Omar Artan, a referee from Somalia, Infantino called the turn of events “unfortunate.”
One U.S. official said Tuesday night Artan was not accepted when his flight landed in Miami from Istanbul due to an alleged “association with suspected members of terror organizations.” He said FIFA understands there are also times to “chill and relax” when visa issues arise rather than creating additional conflict.
“Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect in terms of finding a solution,” he said. “We always try to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces.”
Infantino said there are no regrets from FIFA about selecting the United States as one of the three host countries for the 48-team tournament.
Asked about the status of the Iranian team, which moved its training to Mexico and will shuttle to games in the United States and then fly back to Tijuana, Infantino clarified he is not suggesting FIFA isn’t active in aiding its tournament participants.
“I don’t mean to chill and do nothing, I mean to trust us that we are working behind the scenes, trying to understand,” he said. “There are things we are told, things we are not told. We always try to make things positive and find a solution.
“It has been successful to bring Iran to play in America, I don’t know who would’ve managed to do that … we don’t live on the moon, we live on planet Earth and we try our best.”
He said the same applies to the ongoing investigations by attorneys general in New Jersey, New York, California and Texas over allegations of misleading ticket price structure. FIFA revealed Wednesday that listed ticket prices were sold for an average of less than $500.
Infantino, who claimed only four complaints crossed his desk from “800,000 tickets sold” for matches in San Francisco and Inglewood, Calif., said FIFA will also take a chill approach to responding to the uproar around ticketing.
Why so relaxed?
“Because before starting to sell 7 million tickets, we checked what we would do with the best lawyers or experts,” Infantino said. “In California, we sold 800,000 tickets for the games in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Out of the 800,000 we had three customers who complained. The fourth one has come since. These cases were solved before the investigations started. We welcome any investigations. We’ll present everything and make our case. But it’s most important that every dollar that we generate goes back into football.”
–Field Level Media
