Infantino’s FIFA and celebration of defeat by sore losers -

The almost chaotic scenes at the final match of the 35th edition of the African Cup of Nations in Morocco in January this year should have prepared the minds of football lovers for the man-made orchestrations in this year’s FIFA World Cup that nearly brought the beautiful game of football to disrepute. Never has there been so much deep-seated sour taste in the mouth in any edition of the global showpiece as the 2026 edition hosted by Mexico/United States/Canada.

Admittedly, one must salute the high level of football artistry on display by the 48 participating countries, including the quality of a few any football fans might have hitherto dismissed with a wave of the hands. The politics, manipulations, and glaring inactions by Gianni Infantino’s FIFA and a few ego-filled teams point to a dangerous dimension that portends serious danger to the health of the beautiful game.

In his 10th year in charge of FIFA, Infantino is clearly on a descent, and towards an unplanned exit that may save the Italian from drowning himself in shame.

Never has a FIFA president demonstrated his readiness to be manipulated by the powerful regardless of the risk of such a move. This man has strangely and obviously demonstrated his preference for certain teams over others. Only Infantino would be able to explain why he was able to threaten fire and brimstone after the drama at the AFCON final in Rabat between eventual champion, Senegal, and hosts Morocco, but curiously became blind after the embarrassment football was subjected to by ‘FIFA-anointed team’, Argentina, who deservedly lost the final match to European champions, Spain, penultimate Sunday.

Don’t miss the point: I love football, having played the round-leather game to my God-given capacity; I only show my partisanship when the Super Eagles played well and lost, not the lame and duck displays the national team put up when struggling to qualify for the just-concluded competition. Interestingly, Nigeria still managed to win some ‘trophies’ at the World Cup in which it did not participate. You know the ‘unnamed trophies’ more than I do. So, you don’t need my help to list them.

Up until this moment, I still do not understand what Argentina deserved at the end of the final whistle of the 2026 World Cup with the level of football they played against Spain in the final. I won’t take away the respect the Argentines deserved, going through the group stages; through the knockout matches (especially with the help of malleable referees), and landing at the final while fighting to retain the crown they won four years ago in Doha, Qatar.

With the benefit of hindsight, one is tempted to submit that the quality of the La Albiceleste at the 2026 World Cup was below the quality of the squad that won the cup in Qatar, where they lost their opening match 1-2 to Saudi Arabia.

In 2026, some remote arrangements, however, ensured that despite a few lapses, the Argentines progressed seamlessly into the knockout stages, where they suddenly realised they were the ‘FIFA hot favourites’ for the ultimate prize, signposted by unexplainable favourable and strange decisions. The marketing prospects of keeping the South Americans in the competition obviously overshadowed all considerations in FIFA’s calculations and deliberate inactions.

As in all facets of human life, there are certain gaps that wouldn’t be covered forever by man-made arrangements. Despite tolerating the customary excesses of the Argentines in the first half, Slovenian Slavko Vincic stamped his authority, which resulted in the sending off of the usually pompous Enzo Fernandez and the eventual capitulation of the La Albiceleste.

The deserved defeat of the Argentines in the one-sided match against Spain is not my interest in this piece, by the way. It is the disgraceful attitude of the losers and the criminal silence of the Infantino-led FIFA since the embarrassing episode of the aftermath of the World Cup final match penultimate Sunday.

Anti-apartheid icon and former South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, once said, “Sports can create hope, where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.” By the way, this particular statement might have been erased even in South Africa itself by narrow-minded nincompoops masquerading as leaders in the nation’s current setup.

A former US diplomat and civil rights leader, Andrew Young, while supporting some of the good attributes of sports, said, “I’ve always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect,” the latter part being the anchor of the statement. Also, a former US President, Theodore Roosevelt, examined the good and bad sides of sports prowess. “Character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master,” he stated.

By Ademola Oni

In sports especially, which help to unite people of all races (at least, so it seems) more than most governmental structures in the world today, there will always be songs of victory and the lamentation of defeat. Essentially, what separates the two is the mood and the maturity the parties bring to it.

A line in ‘Beast of No Nation’, one of the iconic masterpieces of Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, kept popping up as I was battling to keep Long Range in check. This line simply says “This uprising will bring out the beast in us.” Fela was not the originator of this line, by the way.

PW Botha, one of the apartheid leaders in South Africa, had made this unguarded statement to belittle the uprising, protests and physical violence against apartheid rule in South Africa in the mid-80s. Pitiably, illiterate, ignorant and ungrateful black South Africans have turned on other blacks in the former apartheid enclave, killing some, looting their property, shutting down their businesses and telling them to go ‘beck’ to their countries.

It is basically impossible for the hands of the clock to go back many years. This current generation of South Africans, including their pretentious leaders, shouldn’t have been part of the package of freedom, if you ask me, but thank you for not asking.

Let’s go back to the World Cup. At the penultimate tournament in Qatar, after the Kylian Mbappe-inspired France lost the FIFA World Cup final to Argentina, French President Emanuel Macron personally embraced the players, encouraging them to be proud of their outstanding display. The players and officials didn’t bring down the stadium, nor did they turn the presentation ceremonies into a showpiece of crass moral ineptitude like our South American ‘superstars’ exhibited in New Jersey.

I’m not a mind reader, but I’m sure something else was going through the minds of the Argentine players and officials at the end of the match in New Jersey on July 19 that so many people didn’t see. Like Spain crippled the machinery of Mbappe-led France attack in the semi-finals, the European champions equally shut down the Lionel Messi troops in a more spectacular fashion in the final. The South Americans did not register a single shot on goal throughout the 120 minutes of football action. Even our dear Super Eagles, on their day, would have done better.

So then, can someone explain to me why the Argentines decided to bring out the beast in them on this occasion? Why would national team players throw decorum to the wind, preferring the mentality of beasts? Would punching the Spaniards assuage the pain of the defeat on the night? The Argentines were, however, lucky that a player like Sergio Ramos was not in the Spain squad on the day. Cape Verde, Egypt and England partly lost to the Argentines, not because of superior football mastery but to the obvious conspiratorial machinations of Infantino and FIFA, a very dangerous trend.

The Argentines didn’t start their shenanigans in the final. After their 2-1 victory over England in the semi-finals, the still embittered South Americans decided to mock England for losing the Falkland Islands to the Europeans after their defeat in the 74-day battle in 1982. The question is, why on the field of play? Were they reprimanded?

How does one categorise the role of Infantino’s FIFA in the excesses of the Argentines at the World Cup? At the end of the AFCON final in Rabat and the drama that attended the match in January, the FIFA president started spitting fire, culminating in the purported stripping of the Senegalese of their well-deserved AFCON title.

More than a week after the Argentines’ show of shame in New Jersey, Infantino has not found his voice in roundly condemning the South Americans for bringing the beautiful game to global disrepute. Who is this man trying to please?

It is clearly a crime against humanity for a team to believe that through sheer manipulation, the trophy of the FIFA World Cup could be handed over to it no matter how poorly it played. In this case, Argentina (and by extension, Infantino) lost the World Cup on the field of play, deservedly so, and outside the field, the respect of the global football family by bringing out the beast in them.