Club World Cup prices drop, Infantino irks Canada and Mexico, New Zealand-U.S. World Cup? – Inside FIFA’s dramatic Congress

“In the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, representatives from 211 nations and territories assembled this week for the 75th FIFA Congress. This was not an obvious contender to be a dramatic affair because the agenda was relatively light. Yet in the space of a few days, civil war broke out within the FIFA Council, which is the decision-making body that sits at the top of the organisation. The drama began when The Athletic revealed last week that FIFA president Gianni Infantino would not be attending a scheduled in-person meeting of the FIFA Council in Paraguay on Tuesday, making it a virtual call and instead joining President Donald Trump on a visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. This rankled several members of the Council, but matters really blew up on Thursday morning when flight tracking data of a Qatari private jet travelling from Doha — via Lagos in Nigeria — showed that Infantino appeared to still be in the air to Paraguay, delaying the Congress by three hours. …”
NY Times/The Athletic