Infantino tells Fifa critics to ‘meditate, pray or watch football’

Gianni Infantino has stopped absorbing the criticism quietly. The Fifa president told his detractors to ‘meditate, pray or watch a football match’ rather than ‘spreading hate and false rumours’ about him, about the governing body and about the World Cup. The message came in a 15-slide post on his personal Instagram account, then reposted to Fifa’s own account and its eight million followers. The format is unusual. The instinct is not: since taking charge in 2016, Infantino has consistently preferred talking straight to supporters over facing a press room.

What Infantino actually wrote

The post has a named target: ‘those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens’. According to Infantino, while those voices were ‘busy planting seeds of hate’, Fifa was delivering the ‘greatest event on earth’. He added that the World Cup ‘celebrated humanity at its best’.

The delivery method carries its own message. Fifteen slides on Instagram, no press conference, no follow-up questions. By resharing it on the governing body’s official account, Fifa turned a personal statement into an institutional position.

Why Fifa is under fire

The criticism aimed at Fifa in recent months has clustered around specific issues: ticket pricing and dynamic pricing models, the environmental footprint of a tournament spread across three host nations, the workload placed on players, and the governing body’s proximity to political power. Player unions and domestic leagues have pushed parts of that case through formal channels, not just headlines.

Infantino does not answer those points individually. His defence is a single argument: the tournament worked, the crowds came, therefore the critics were wrong. That is precisely what frustrates his opponents, who say questions about governance are being met with attendance figures.

The English angle: fixture congestion and the Premier League

In England the sharpest complaint is not about tone, it is about the calendar. A 48-team World Cup stretches the international summer, which pushes back pre-season for the clubs supplying the most players. Premier League squads routinely lose internationals for the entire summer window and then start the season with those players short of a proper break.

Player representatives have argued for some time that the expanded international schedule is unsustainable, with several disputes raised at European level. Premier League managers have made the same point in blunter language after injury-hit autumns. Infantino’s post, focused on the spectacle, does not engage with that workload argument at all.

Direct communication, unanswered questions

Plenty inside the game will accept the organisational achievement of running a World Cup across three countries. The objection is to the framing. Telling journalists to meditate or pray reads, to many reporters and administrators, as a refusal to account for how a multi-billion dollar organisation spends its money.

It also reflects a wider shift. Sports bodies now publish first on social media and let newsrooms react afterwards. The upside is total control of the narrative. The downside is that every awkward question starts to look like an attack, and every critic like an enemy.

What happens next

Infantino’s presidency, which began in 2016, has been defined by expansion: more teams, more matches, more competitions. The debate that follows the 2026 World Cup will be less about how many people filled the stadiums and more about revenue distribution, player welfare and how much room is left for domestic leagues.

For English supporters the practical question is simple enough. How many extra fixtures will internationals play, and what condition will they be in when they report back to their clubs? That, rather than an Instagram carousel, is where the next phase of Fifa’s leadership will be judged.

FAQ