US official denies phone call set up between Rubio, FIFA’s Infantino

President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, attends World Football Day event at the UN General Assembly on May 19, 2026, New York, U.S. [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]

US Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson denied that talks had been scheduled between FIFA President Gianni Infantino and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, Anadolu reports.

“There are no plans for @SecRubio to speak with Infantino and there is no call this morning,” said Johnson in a statement on US social media company X.

He asked the New York Post to “check their sources,” adding “they could have just asked us.”

Earlier, two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Post that Infantino will hold a call with Rubio just after 9 am ET (1300 GMT).

“He wanted to get online with the secretary and talk about how soccer can be a form of soft power for America,” said one insider briefed on the matter. “But we all know that it is about job protection. It is not about anything else at this point.”

READ: Trump wants to nominate FIFA chief for UN secretary-general: Report

Infantino has repeatedly tried and failed to reach US President Donald Trump by phone since his plan to allow private investors to acquire a stake in the game’s commercial assets collapsed on Friday, according to the New York Post.

The calls follow FIFA abandoning its proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) on Friday after widespread opposition from confederations and national associations over plans to allow minority private investment in a new subsidiary that would manage the commercial rights to the World Cup and other FIFA competitions.

Over the weekend, CONCACAF and UEFA spoke out about the proposal and Infantino’s leadership of football, calling for a “comprehensive reckoning.”

On Monday, the Football Association of Wales announced its withdrawal of support for Infantino’s bid to remain FIFA president, becoming the first national body to do so. Shortly after, reports surfaced that the English Football Association would follow suit, adding to opposition to another Infantino presidency.

READ: FIFA has a Gianni Infantino problem

0 Comments

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.