World Cup, Morace (M5S): “Infantino has shown to be biased; the Trump precedent is dangerous”

From our correspondent in Strasbourg – “Infantino has demonstrated his partiality, and in sport, impartiality is essential.” Carolina Morace is now a Member of the European Parliament. She is a representative of the Five Star Movement, a member of the Committees on Constitutional Affairs and Women’s Rights, and she knows a thing or two about football. In her previous career, she sat on the bench as a coach. And before that, she took to the pitch herself. As a player and then as a coach, she also wore the Italian national team’s blue shirt, and it comes as no surprise that she is among the signatories of the letter written by MEPs to launch an investigation into the conduct of the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino. The “Balogun case”, the American footballer who was initially banned and then reinstated at the behest of US President Donald Trump, “has discredited FIFA”, she explains in an interview with Eunews. 

Eunews: You are one of the signatories of the letter against the FIFA president. Can you explain what is going on? 

Carolina Morace: “This is the first time a head of state has intervened so forcefully in a World Cup. Football has always claimed to be independent of politics, and Trump’s actions set a dangerous precedent. But then again, this World Cup got off to a bad start.” 

E: What are you referring to? 

C.M: “To the referees and support staff treated like criminals at customs, and then to FIFA’s double standards, which are glaringly obvious. Russia and Belarus are banned from taking part, when sport and culture are spaces for dialogue that must remain open. Israel, on the other hand, takes part in sporting events. Not to mention President Trump, who is flouting international law. We must not forget Maduro’s kidnapping (the President of Venezuela removed from office by the US through his arrest, ed.), we must not forget the attack on Iran, and we must not forget that it is complicit in the genocide in Gaza. So the United States, too, should not have taken part.” 

E: You referred to sport and culture as channels for dialogue. At EU level, there is the the Venice Biennale issue: has the EU got it wrong? 

C.M: “Of course. I would like to point out that the Commissioner [for Culture and Sport, Glenn] Micallef came before the committee to say that he would not accept the invitation to take part in the Biennale because of Russia’s presence there. But I repeat: these are areas that lie outside such logic. In sport, there are opponents, not enemies to be destroyed.” 

E: On the other hand, however, opponents have argued that Russia would have used the occasion to spread propaganda… 

C.M: “And doesn’t Israel use and seek opportunities for propaganda? Israel is portrayed as the only democracy in the Middle East, yet it began carrying out ethnic cleansing from the very day after the creation of the Jewish state.” 

E: Those are strong statements… 

C.M: “When people are displaced, their homes are burnt down, and their animals are killed, what on earth are we talking about?” 

E: Let’s talk about FIFA and the letter: will the European Parliament follow up on this initiative? 

C.M: “Sport is a matter for the Member States; it is not within our remit. We will, of course, be monitoring the response to this letter; in future, the European Parliament might even send a letter to FIFA Ethics Committee.” 

E: To what extent has FIFA’s reputation been damaged? Before today, there was the corruption scandal involving Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor… 

C.M: “As a woman, I can only speak highly of Blatter: he started talking about women’s football when I was still playing—forty years ago—and he has done far more for women’s football than Infantino has.”