On the 17th floor of Trump Tower in New York, FIFA’s name hangs on a door that rarely opens. The suite is nearly 5,000 square feet, costs around $4 million across a lease of more than seven years, and according to current and former officials sits largely idle, with no permanent staff and no plan to install any.

The lease was signed roughly a year before the 2026 World Cup, and Infantino drove the decision to open the representative office, according to two officials directly involved in the deal. The space is used for occasional events and for meetings around the annual UN General Assembly.

FIFA, in a statement, framed the arrangement as unremarkable.

“New York is a global city, and FIFA is a global organization; it is therefore logical for FIFA to have a presence there,” the body said, adding that the lease complies with local law and followed its standard internal processes.

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Lawyers helped structure the deal so that no business or commercial activity would take place at the address, a design meant to avoid additional New York state tax liability.

Norway takes it to the ethics panel

On October 6 the Norwegian Football Federation filed two formal complaints with FIFA’s Ethics Committee and its Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee. The filings target three matters linking Infantino to Trump: an aborted plan to open the World Cup to private investors, the lifting of the suspension of US forward Folarin Balogun during the tournament after Trump intervened, and FIFA’s decision to award Trump a Peace Prize.

NFF president Lise Klaveness, a persistent critic of Infantino, said the three cases share a common thread.

“There is a line between all these three cases, and it’s the same political regime,” Klaveness said.

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She framed the Ethics Committee’s task bluntly.

“Is it an abuse of power, an abuse of position? Is it a breach of political neutrality?”

Blatter breaks ranks

Infantino’s predecessor has gone further. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter used his X account in July to accuse the current president of damaging the game through his dealings with Trump.

“The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football. No one has the right to sell our game,” Blatter wrote.

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The post landed amid reporting on a privatization plan that would have pulled private investors, including figures close to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, into FIFA competitions.

Maduro flags a conflict of interest

The Trump Tower lease has drawn similar language from inside FIFA’s old governance apparatus. Miguel Maduro, the body’s former head of governance, told The New York Times that the deal “raises a clear conflict of interest in the light of FIFA’s interests in the U.S. World Cup or its partnership with President Trump’s Board of Peace.” Alex Phillips, a former FIFA official, called the new office “a completely unnecessary level of pandering” in the same reporting.

Infantino attended Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 and in December 2025 presented him with a FIFA Peace Prize, a trophy created specifically for the US president. The Trump Tower lease was signed in the same window.

The Ethics Committee and the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee have not published a timetable for their rulings on the Norwegian complaints.

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