Infantino’s karmic reckoning arrives, but Liew asks why Fifa revolt took so long

According to a new Guardian column by Jonathan Liew, Gianni Infantino is getting his karmic kicking as federation leaders finally mass at the gates of Fifa. The rebellion, Liew argues, has been building for years.

He reminds readers that the complaints are not new: there were early proposals to sell off Fifa’s commercial legacy, and the decision to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar drew fierce criticism at the time. Yet for a long time, little changed.

Liew uses the setting of Fifa’s new African headquarters in Salé, Morocco, to frame the moment. Once a gritty working-class town, Salé now hosts luxury projects and the Fifa office, an environment Liew describes as a fitting backdrop for a besieged warlord making a last stand.

The deeper question is why football took so long to rebel. For Liew, the delayed confrontation says as much about the sport’s governing culture as it does about Infantino’s grip on power.