If America is deeply divided over his re-election, the same can be said for sport amid huge trepidation about what the future may hold
To get a sense of how Donald Trump regaining the US presidency impacts sport, look no further than the response to his triumph from the industry’s two most powerful men.
“Congratulations Mr President!” gushed Fifa president Gianni Infantino on Instagram upon Trump declaring victory over Kamala Harris. “We will have a great Fifa World Cup and a great Fifa Club World Cup in the United States of America! Football Unites the World!” Contrast that with the silence of Thomas Bach, Infantino’s counterpart at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would not confirm whether its own president had sent even a private message to the man now destined to play a key role in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
If America and the wider world is deeply divided over Trump’s election to a second term in office, the same can be said for sport amid huge anticipation and trepidation about what the future holds.
For Infantino, Trump completing arguably the greatest political comeback in history could hardly be more welcome or more timely. The two presidents hit it off from the moment of their first Oval Office meeting, after the US was awarded the 2026 World Cup – along with Mexico and Canada – during Trump’s previous term. Their special relationship continued even after Trump was voted out of power in 2020 amid a refusal by current president Joe Biden to grant Infantino a similar audience, a snub emblematic of four turbulent years for Fifa and its leader.
That turbulence has coalesced around a proposal to change the World Cup from a quadrennial to a biennial event, which subsequently mutated into the almost equally divisive launch of a 32-team Club World Cup. Fifa has appeared increasingly desperate in its attempts to lure broadcasters and sponsors to back the new tournament, which is being staged in the US next summer as something of a World Cup test event but still does not have a fully confirmed match schedule. It would be no surprise to see Infantino try to leverage his relationship with arch-dealmaker Trump, to prevent the inaugural 32-team competition ending up an expensive flop.
The Fifa president will also be banking on Trump not reneging on a promise he made during the latter’s first term, that any implementation of draconian border controls by the US would not stop players and spectators from travelling there for the first 48-nation World Cup the following summer. Current wait times for visa interviews run into several hundreds of days for those applying from some of the nations likely to qualify for the tournament.
In return for World Cup ticket holders being guaranteed entry to the US, Trump can rely on Infantino to be a human shield for any flak over his plans to deport thousands of illegal immigrants during the build-up to the summer of 2026, or offensive remarks he might make about co-hosts Mexico. Such rhetoric during his first term ultimately had no impact upon the award of Fifa’s flagship event back in 2018, albeit no one anticipated Trump would be president when the tournament finally came around.
Intriguingly, his second term is set to coincide with the bidding process for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, for which America is also teaming up with Mexico. That process will take place against a backdrop of open hostility between Trump and the US national women’s team, something triggered by the now-retired Megan Rapinoe stating she would snub an invitation to the White House if America won the 2019 tournament. But the prospect of this torpedoing a bid for the 2031 edition also appears remote.
Trump’s presidency will finally have been timed out before that World Cup takes place, in stark contrast to the 2028 Olympics in LA. The Games are shaping up to be his sporting swansong, making it notable that IOC president Bach has not joined Infantino in publicly congratulating him on his re-election. Bach, who completes his own term of office next year, also had an Oval Office audience with Trump during the latter’s first term. Unlike the photo opportunity with Infantino, the 2017 meeting took place entirely behind closed doors and no official information was released about what was discussed beyond Trump expressing his support for LA’s bid for the Games. But one account published by the Olympics-focused website Around The Rings claimed Bach had told a colleague upon leaving the White House: “Pray for the world.”
Whoever succeeds Bach as the most powerful figure in sport – Lord Coe is among the contenders – can ill afford to fall out with the most powerful person in the world if the two are to share a stage come the opening ceremony of LA 2028. As chronicled by Telegraph Sport following Wednesday’s election, Trump and the Bach-led IOC are currently on a collision course over the latter’s gender eligibility criteria. Trump vowed to ban transgender women from women’s sport in America if he regained the US presidency. That put him in direct opposition to the IOC and many international federations, which have not imposed a blanket prohibition. The impact on LA 2028 of such a ban becoming law in the US remains to be seen, with California’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, having already moved to prevent some of the incoming president’s policies taking effect in the state.
Of course, as far as Trump is concerned, the World Cup and the Olympics pale into insignificance compared to his true sporting passion and one his presidency is being tipped to help revolutionise.
Golf’s links with Trump are well-documented and his election victory speech this week included a typically bizarre shout-out for two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau to join him on stage. There can be no doubt that the majority at the elite end of the professional male game were celebrating Trump’s return to the White House, while even Rory McIlroy was talking up the prospect of it bringing an end to the sport’s three-year civil war. Trump boasted earlier this week that “it would take me the better part of 15 minutes” to solve the apparent stalemate between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over reunifying golf. McIlroy has previously opined that the Department of Justice and its investigation into any merger on anti-competition trusts was one of the main stumbling blocks in the respective parties reaching a resolution. But in his election campaign, Trump vowed to take control of the DOJ. The department is headed by the Attorney General, who reports directly to the president and is a member of his cabinet.
McIlroy also said: “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved too.”
When it comes to the US’s biggest sports, American football, baseball and basketball, Trump’s first term was plagued by athlete protests over perceived social and racial injustice on his watch. Those climaxed in San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking the knee during the national anthem, a controversial gesture later copied across sport, including by Premier League and England footballers. Trump branded Kaepernick and others unpatriotic and it would be no surprise to see further clashes once he regains power in January.
It seems that however Trump chooses to involve himself in sport during his second term in office, the next four years are unlikely to be dull.
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