During a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the opening match of the expanded 48-team World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino addressed the case of Somali referee Omar Ertan. Artan was set to become the first Somali official to officiate at the World Cup. However, he was denied entry to the United States due to unspecified security concerns.Infantino said FIFA was trying to help but could not rule out government decisions.“We don’t control everything. We try. We’ll talk, we’ll talk, we’ll see. Maybe sometimes it’s good to just chill, relax,” he said.He added: “We try to solve everything. Sometimes immediately starting to yell and scream is counterproductive to finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but we always try to find a solution. But then we need to respect that we are not kings of the world to rule over governments and police forces.See:Infantino has also defended higher ticket prices for 2026. FIFA World Cup And responded to criticism on several issues related to the tournament.Infantino said FIFA had carefully reviewed its ticketing plans before selling millions of tickets. Ticket prices have become a major talking point, especially for the final, where some seats are selling for thousands of dollars.Infantino argued that lower prices would only benefit ticket sellers and black market operators.“If you sell it at a lower price,” he said, “it would go to that particular market — which is perfectly legal in this country … in the secondary markets at much, much, much higher prices and then where would the money go? Well, to the people who regulate the secondary market or black market activities and not football.”He also dismissed concerns over investigations launched by attorneys general in several US states.“When it comes to the legal investigations or complaints that were made in some states in the United States, we’re very relaxed about that because before we start selling 6.5 or 7 million tickets, we check what we do with the best lawyers, with the best experts. If we do something wrong, maybe everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong,” he said.
Iran, Trump and FIFA’s ambitions
Infantino also praised FIFA’s efforts to ensure Iran’s participation in the World Cup despite tensions between the United States and Iran.“I think he’s already been successful in bringing Iran to play in the United States,” he said.The FIFA chief claimed that the tournament could become the biggest event in the history of mankind. He also credited US President Donald Trump for helping make the World Cup possible in the country.“Without his engagement and his involvement I think it would have been impossible – as simple as that, it would have been impossible to have the World Cup in America,” Infantino said.FIFA expects the tournament to generate about $11 billion in revenue. Infantino said the organization could have made a lot more money by putting matches behind paywalls, but chose not to.“We can put everything on payroll. We’ll probably generate $30 billion in revenue,” he said. “But then you have billions of people in the world who won’t be able to watch the World Cup.”
