In a speech at the Davos Economic Forum, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, “Soccer is the most democratic sport, and the World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, wants to unite the world,” and supported US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a Gaza peace commission.
“Of course, we live in a divided world. We support peace. We all have to support peace, which is why we saw President Trump sign an agreement that is FIFA’s greatest support for a president. People trust FIFA, the host nation. America will welcome the world.”
Morocco refuses to touch trophy next to Gianni Infantino in AFCON final
Before the championship was awarded to the three nations, Infantino recalled, in a previously unprecedented event, how the United States and Mexico had erected a wall between the two countries to assert the unifying power of soccer and a tournament like the World Cup, which, in his opinion, is a “great celebration of humanity” this year.
We need opportunities to bring people together. We saw it in Qatar in 2022. Despite a lot of criticism beforehand, it was a great World Cup
“We need opportunities to bring people together. We saw that in Qatar in 2022. There was a lot of criticism beforehand, but it was a great World Cup. There were no incidents, and for the first time in history there were no arrests. It was a very special celebration, a party. 2026 will be exactly the same. People will want to come and celebrate,” he said.
All tickets will be sold
Infantino highlighted the figure of 500 million ticket requests received in the past four weeks to attend the World Cup and said he was confident that “everything will be sold” (7 million), even though he acknowledged that the tickets were not cheap and there had been growing criticism, mainly from England and Germany, along with the United States, which had the most requests.
104 games in a month is like 104 Super Bowls in a month
He was also confident that visa processing for entry into the United States “will be expedited” because “this is a special World Cup, the first of its kind with 48 countries participating, and the attention to every match is incredibly high.” “104 games in a month is like 104 Super Bowls in a month,” he joked on stage, appearing with the World Cup trophy and official ball and tossing it to the crowd.
“The ball is also magic. It is a tool that can transform people into happy people. In special times like this, we must remember to be happy. We must forget about our problems. When you are touching the ball, you don’t have to think about your problems,” he said before handing over to former Italian footballer Alessandro Del Piero and FIFA’s head of world football development Arsene Wenger.
The six million tickets sold by FIFA, the tournament’s $8 billion impact and the 824,000 full-time jobs created for the World Cup were some of the economic data presented by Infantino, who wanted to uncover anecdotes that underlined the power of the World Cup.
“I join with the President of the United States to present this trophy to the champion. No one can touch it, only the winner or me. When I was young, I understood that I could not touch it with my skills, but I decided that I had to find another way and become FIFA president,” he said.
