Sepp Blatter has called Gianni Infantino a dictator in a new interview with Der Spiegel. The former FIFA president, 90, also accused his successor of buying member federation votes to stay in power and said the man who currently runs world football should one day be sent to a psychiatric ward.
The quotes, which first appeared in the German weekly on Wednesday, were picked up in English by Nigeria’s Complete Sports and in the Swiss daily 20 Minuten.
“He is a dictator. People in FIFA tell me that no one is allowed to ride in the elevator with him,” Blatter told Der Spiegel.
Blatter alleged that Infantino secures the loyalty of national associations by promising them more FIFA money in exchange for their vote at the Congress, where the presidency is decided. Inside the organisation, he said, his successor is treated as “untouchable.”
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The Peace Prize for Trump
The specific trigger for the “psychiatric ward” line, according to the interview, was the FIFA Peace Prize. The award was created under Infantino and handed to US President Donald Trump at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington in December 2025. Blatter told Der Spiegel it was madness to give a peace prize to a leader who then waged war against Iran.
“Maybe Infantino should be sent to a psychiatric ward one day,” Blatter told Der Spiegel.
The Balogun red card was ‘the worst’
Blatter saved his sharpest judgement for the incident he called the worst of Infantino’s tenure: the red card shown to US striker Folarin Balogun in the round-of-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2026 World Cup, and its removal after a phone call from Trump to Infantino. FIFA lifted the automatic one-match suspension on 5 July 2026, clearing Balogun to face Belgium in the last 16. Belgium’s federation said it was “astonished” by the reversal, and the national coach Rudi Garcia told PBS: “I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the 5th of July was the 1st of April in Europe.”
A banned ex-president turns on his successor
The attack is complicated by the fact that Blatter is not a disinterested observer. He announced his departure in 2015 as Swiss and US prosecutors opened criminal investigations into FIFA, and the governing body’s own ethics committee banned him from football over a 2 million Swiss franc payment he had authorised to then UEFA president Michel Platini. He was subsequently acquitted in Swiss criminal proceedings.
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He has not held a formal role in football since.
Infantino, who was re-elected unopposed in 2023, has not publicly addressed Blatter’s latest comments.
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