Who is the “king of soccer" Gianni Infantino?
6/17/202628 min
As England kick off their World Cup campaign tonight, one man will be impossible to ignore: FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Hailed by supporters as the man who transformed football’s governing body and accused by critics of chasing power and influence, he's become one of the most powerful figures in global sport. But who is the man at the centre of football's biggest stage?
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Guest: Martyn Ziegler chief sports reporter, The Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producers: Dave Creasey and Edward Drummond.
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Read more: The ruthless rise of Gianni Infantino and his Fifa money machine
Further listening: The Game
Clips: BBC News, FIFA, Sky News, Channel 4 News, Fox News, CNN.
Image: Getty Images.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLuke Jones· Host0:02
From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Luke Jones.
Martin Ziegler· Guest0:06
I think it was just before 6:00 AM on May the 27th, 2015, when my mobile phone buzzed.
Luke Jones· Host0:18
Martin Ziegler is Times chief sports reporter.
Martin Ziegler· Guest0:22
I was asleep in a fairly modest Zurich hotel room, but I saw the person calling was a friend and contact based on the other side of the Atlantic.
Luke Jones· Host0:32
An excited voice told Martin.
Martin Ziegler· Guest0:35
"Get yourself down to the Baur au Lac Hotel," which is where all the FIFA people were staying. There were no taxis at that time in the morning, but it was less than a mile away across the River Limmat, so I ran and arrived sweating in the cool of the dawn just in time to see a, a FIFA member being ushered under a bed sheet into an unmarked car by some plain-clothed officers.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:01
It was the wake-up call no one at FIFA had expected, a dawn raid by plain-clothed Swiss police at one of Zurich's most luxurious hotels.
Martin Ziegler· Guest1:11
So I went inside the hotel, and the staff appeared shocked by the police swoop, and then it turned out that seven FIFA officials had been arrested.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:22
The scale of the alleged corruption is breathtaking. Suspected bribes worth almost 100 million