On Friday the 26th of February, FIFA elected a new president. After two close rounds of voting, Gianni Infantino from UEFA won the race ahead of Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa from Bahrain.
The voting was anonymous, and it is therefore impossible to say with certainty who Russia voted for, but there is no doubt that Russia were on good terms with both of the main candidates. Like most of Europe, Vitaly Mutko (pictured above), the Russian sports minister and president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), was quick to express his support for Infantino, stating that: “We agree with most European countries and believe that Infantino is our candidate for FIFA presidency.”
However, just a few days before the FIFA election, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Hamad Bin Asa Al-Khalifa, the king of Bahrain and a relative of Sheikh Salman who lost the election to Infantino, in Sochi and the two head-of-state agreed to join forces in the upcoming FIFA election.
It could look like Russia hedged their bets by building ties with both Infantino as well as Sheikh Salman. This would also explain why Mutko in the last days before the election tried to talk them into joining forces. There were rumours of Sheikh Salman and Infantino agreeing to split the power between them, but according to Mutko the two competitors failed to reach an agreement: “In my opinion, they should have come to an agreement.” Mutko said afterwards, adding that: “We have been supporting this idea in every possible way.”
Not long after Infantino was elected, he assured that Russia would keep the rights to host the 2018 World Cup, and that FIFA and Russia needed to organize the best World Cup in history.
Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when both Putin and Mutko expressed their happiness after the election. “I am happy.” Mutko said, “We supported him from the start. I hope that everything that has been planned will be realised. World football needs such a pragmatist.”
It is however worth noticing that American, Swiss and German investigators are currently all looking into the circumstances under which Russia, and Qatar, were awarded the World Cups, but even if they find the smoking gun, it looks unlikely that Infantino will take the World Cup away from Russia.
Just as the RFU is celebrating, so is the Crimean Football Union (CFU). Speaking to Russian news agency TASS, Yury Vetokha, president of the CFU said: “Infantino is more familiar with problems of the Crimean football than the rest, as we worked more closely with UEFA.”
This is no surprise as Vetokha, a former Tavriya Simferopol player, is highly oriented towards Moscow, and added that: “Moreover, we are unanimous with the Russian Football Union, which supports Infantino.”
After the Russian annexation, the Crimean clubs were included in the Russian league system, but they were removed again after UEFA and FIFA refused to recognise the move. Last summer, UEFA set up a Crimean league consisting of eight clubs, and in February the eight clubs played a cup tournament, which was won by FC Bakhchisaray.
In fact, it was Infantino who in 2014 announced that the Crimean clubs would be banned from Russian football, effectively creating the so-called ‘special zone’, which is still effective today. At that time, UEFA also made it clear that they would support the development of football in order to ‘avoid the death of football in Crimea.
The Crimean clubs are currently finding themselves in a limbo as they aren’t allowed to participate in European competitions. Furthermore, the clubs are far from being financially sustainable, as most of them are dependent on financial support from the Russian Ministry of Sports.
Hence, there are still plenty of problems in the Crimean football world. Problems Vetokha apparantly feels are more likely to be solved with a European president. While this might be true, it is still unlikely that much will change for Crimea with the new FIFA president, and it is reasonable to assume that Vetokha is simply following a line set by the Kremlin.
The election of Infantino is a breath of fresh air over the notoriously closed football world, but so far it doesn’t seem to affect Russia’s relations with football’s governing bodies. Moreover, Infantino is known for being the protegé of Michel Platini, the now former UEFA president, who was one of the most noticeable supporters of Russia’s World Cup bid. Regardless of Platini being dethroned, his relationship with Mutko and Russia doesn’t seem to have been hurt, and in the beginning of February, Mutko told R-Sport that he would invite Platini to the World Cup in 2018 despite of his suspension.
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