July 11 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose first act in his new job 18 months ago was to host a star-studded Legends match at his new office in Zurich, something of a vanity project, organised a similar event last week after inviting some of the world’s finest ex-players (and one of two present ones) to dust off their boots for an exhibition game in his home town of Brig.
Diego Maradona, Paolo Maldini, Marco van Basten, Zvonimir Boban (now one FIFA’s own), David Trezeguet, Gianluigi Buffon, Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Del Piero were reportedly among the giants of world football who made a one-off appearance before some 4,000 fans to play in what the Swiss media dubbed “Gianni’s game”.
The presence of Maradona was regarded as particularly controversial given the ongoing Russian doping scandal and the fact that Maradona himself tested positive at the 1994 World Cup.
“It’s not my evening, it’s the evening of the stars and the many fans of football,” Infantino was quoted as saying at Friday’s event. Tellingly, for all the supposed support for women’s football under the new FIFA hierarchy, there were apparently no female participants.
More than 50 players turned up for the event, split into three teams – an Italian eleven, a Swiss 11 and a World 11. Swiss reports said there was a place for Infantino himself in all three squads.
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