Andrew Giuliani, son of the former Mayor of New York and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, has called FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s critics ‘jealous’ after the latest backlash.

After the FAI officially withdrew their support for the FIFA President’s next presidential campaign next year, New Zealand followed suit, breaking away from the OFC’s official stance and withdrawing its support for the Swiss as well.

Infantino is quickly losing most of the support he had after trying to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup, apologising for his proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), with an idea to sell off around 20 per cent to private investors – including a company headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

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FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino. Pic: Jaime SALDARRIAGA / AFP via Getty Images

Speaking to The Athletic, Andrew Giuliani thinks it’s the critics who are in the wrong. ‘It’s politics,’ Giuliani junior explained. ‘I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted President Trump from a political perspective. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted other people.

‘People are jealous when people are very high achievers – and what Gianni Infantino has done for FIFA is he’s taken them to a whole new level that probably they didn’t think was possible.

‘You’ve got to remember, this is the first World Cup that Gianni Infantino was president for, landing, right? He inherited the Russia and Qatar World Cups, and did a good job with those, but this is the first one. It’s his vision on this.’

Andrew Giuliani, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 speaks with law enforcement members during a press tour of the International Police Cooperation Center for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at The National Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia on June 29, 2026. (Photo by Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Images)
Andrew Giuliani, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026. Pic: Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Images

Giuliani, who was Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, added: ‘What I’ll tell you is that for any soccer confederation or football federation president who is thinking about not voting for Gianni Infantino, it would probably be one of the most foolish decisions of your professional life.

‘This guy literally just put on the largest global sporting event ever without any incident, making over four times the revenue of the last World Cup, and you’re thinking of ousting him. If Gianni Infantino doesn’t get re-elected unanimously, then whoever voted against him needs to get their head examined.’

Giuliani thinks associations need to forgive Infantino for his misstep. ‘Just because you’re always trying to improve doesn’t mean that you’re not going to take a misstep here or there, right? As a human being, it happens, but I would look at the body of work and say this is the guy I would want leading.’