Gianni Infantino marks 10 years atop Fifa: Money, Trump and controversy

Ten years after being elected to save Fifa, Gianni Infantino is still the man in charge. The organisation he inherited was in crisis; the one he runs today is richer than ever. But his decade at the top has also been defined by division, burning bridges with European football and a string of controversies that keep following him around. Infantino promised to bring football back to Fifa and Fifa back to football. He did bring the money back. Fifa now expects record revenues of $13bn (£9.6bn) for the three-year cycle through to the end of this year. That recovery was powered by the controversial Club World Cup and the biggest-ever World Cup, with high ticket prices. Yet it has come with accusations that Fifa is selling out the sport, especially after the proposal to sell stakes in competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors. The low-key official who once presented Champions League draws was not the obvious candidate to replace Sepp Blatter. Michel Platini had been Uefa's man, but after Platini was caught up in the corruption scandal, Infantino took that role. His manifesto included two pages on more than doubling development money for member associations, funding new competitions, infrastructure and even travel for smaller nations. He also promised to expand the World Cup - first to 40 teams, then quickly to 48. The election was close. Infantino led Asian confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa 88-85 after the first round. When the 34 votes for Jordan's Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and French executive Jerome Champagne were reallocated, Infantino won 115-88. Greg Dyke, then Football Association chairman, called it a new day and a new dawn, saying the new Fifa boss was not a politician and not an ego. The 2018 World Cup in Russia and 2022 in Qatar were waiting in his in-tray. Qatar turned Infantino into a global talking point. Under fire over workers' rights and modern slavery claims, he attacked European media for hypocrisy and racism, then made his infamous speech: Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel like a migrant worker. Cameras seemed to pick him out in the crowd at every match he attended. There were reports, which Fifa declined to comment on, suggesting television directors were being steered toward him. Infantino now stands on the other side of a decade that changed both him and Fifa. He has clashed with players' unions and European football, made powerful friends outside the sport - Donald Trump among them - and kept his grip on the game's top job. The debate now is whether his legacy will be the financial rescue, or the game he changed to make it happen.