World Soccer - UK (2019-12)

Ada HEGERBERG

Norway, player

Judged to be the world’s best female player

in 2018 but refused to play for Norway at

this year’s World Cup in protest at the pay gap

between Norway’s women’s and men’s teams.

Luis HERNANDEZ

Cuba, FIFA Council member

Former international and the first Cuban to be

elected to FIFA’s executive.

Ramon JESURUN

Colombia, FIFA Council member

President of Colombia’s football federation who

is also vice-president of CONMEBOL. Is under

investigation for alleged embezzlement and

resale of tickets for Colombia’s World Cup

qualifying matches.

Dato Windsor JOHN

Malaysia, AFC general-secretary

Key administrative figure at the Asian Football

Confederation.

Fritz KELLER

Germany, president of the DFB

Recently elected president of the German FA,

replacing the accident-prone Reinhard Grindel.

Formerly president of Freiburg, the winemaker

and restaurateur is likely to play a key role in

organising Euro 2024 in Germany.

Jurgen KLOPP

Germany, coach

Champions League winner and one of the

world’s most coveted coaches.

George KOUMAS

Cyprus, FIFA Council member

Businessman who has been Cyprus FA president

since 2018, when he also joined the FIFA Council

as a European representative.

G-M

Noel LE GRAET

France, FIFA Council member

French federation president since 2011 and a

former president of Guingamp. Recently elected

to FIFA Council to replace Reinhard Grindel.

Jack MA

China, owner Alibaba, FIFA sponsor

China’s richest man whose company stepped in

as a World Cup sponsor after western companies

quit in the light of the FIFAgate scandal.

Lambert MALTOCK

Vanuatu, OFC president, FIFA Council member

Replaced the disgraced David Chung as OFC

head in 2018.

Sheikh MANSOUR bin Zayed Al

Nahyan

UAE, owner Manchester City

The Emirati royal has put more than £1.4billion

into Man City since acquiring the club in 2008.

Giorgio MARCHETTI

Italy, UEFA director of football and deputy

general-secretary

The public face of UEFA at tournament draws

as its director of club competitions.

Dietrich MATESCHITZ

Austria, businessman, club owner

Red Bull energy-drink entrepreneur and

controversial owner of clubs in Germany

(Leipzig), Austria (Salzburg) and USA (New York

Red Bulls), as well as recently promoted Brazilian

club Bragantino.

Jorge MENDES

Portugal, agent

The world’s most powerful agent, representing

virtually every key individual in Portuguese

football, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Jose

Mourinho and Joao Felix, as well as exerting

influence at individual clubs such as Wolves.

Lionel MESSI

Argentina, player

Record-breaking, multiple award-winning

superstar and the world’s highest-paid player.

Highest earner

...Lionel Messi

Draw...Giorgio

M a r c h e t t i

Each one of the nine presidents of FIFA

has reflected his era in not only football

but sport in general. Gianni Infantino

follows that trend as a smooth-operating,

pragmatic autocrat perfectly suited to the

demands of focusing attention on tomorrow

while shutting out yesterday.

Infantino might beware how the likes

of Stanley Rous, Joao Havelange and Sepp

Blatter were all brought down eventually by

their own hubris and arrogance. Whether

he has had time to note that lesson

while engaged in a jet-fuelled

presidency, only time will tell.

The son of Italian immigrants

to Switzerland, he was born in

Brig on March 23, 1970 and

studied law at the University

of Fribourg before working at

the International Center for

Sports Studies as a stepping stone

to the legal team at UEFA in 2000.

His mastery of a brief and linguistic

skills combined with the importance

of Champions League cash saw him

promoted to head up the club licensing

division, and Michel Platini’s ousting of

Lennart Johansson in 2007 opened

more doors.

Platini brought in David Taylor as

general-secretary and he appointed

Infantino as deputy. A further job shuffle

saw Infantino take the general-secretary’s

role and become the most powerful official

in Nyon.

At that time Platini considered their

partnership perfect. He saw himself as

the man of ideas which he could instruct

Infantino to bring to fruition – most notably,

financial fairplay. But they also dreamed of

taking their partnership to FIFA.

However, when Platini was caught up

in the “disloyal payment” scandal, UEFA

nominated Infantino to stand for FIFA

president in the expectation Platini would

soon be free to take up the candidacy. He

wasn’t, and Infantino stood in his own right,

promising to quadruple development cash

and expand the World Cup.

Infantino – whatever the criticisms of his

style – has been as good as his word and

was re-elected last summer. How many

more re-elections depends on his ability to

keep producing financial rabbits out of his

Swiss-Italian hat.

Keir Radnedge

SPOTLIGHT ON...

He promised to quadruple

development cash and

expand the World Cup...and

has been as good as his word

Gianni INFANTINO

Switzerland, FIFA president