Gianni Infantino is spending the autumn on the defensive. A New York Post investigation republished through Yahoo News claims the FIFA president turned to a Trump administration adviser to help secure a US work permit for his Nicaraguan housekeeper, the third significant controversy around his leadership to break since the World Cup final in July.

The housekeeper named in the Post’s reporting, 33-year-old Yajarlin del Socorro Fernandez, lost her work authorisation on 12 June 2025 after the Trump administration ended a humanitarian parole programme that had covered Nicaraguans. FIFA kept her on its payroll for months afterwards, and in January 2026 she was granted a new C11 parole work permit, a category that would normally be reserved for humanitarian cases and military families.

The intermediary named in the report is Carlos Cordeiro, a former FIFA official and ex-Goldman Sachs banker whom Trump appointed as senior adviser to the White House’s World Cup task force in May 2025. Bluewin, restating the Post’s investigation, says Cordeiro instructed a subordinate to submit a false Miami rental address on Fernandez’s immigration filings, concealing the home where she actually worked for the Infantino family.

Cordeiro declined to comment. FIFA and Infantino did not respond to the Post’s detailed questions, and the Department of Homeland Security would not explain why the new permit was approved. There is no public finding that any law was broken.

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$4m of FIFA money, no disclosure

The housekeeper allegation lands two days after The New York Times reported, via The Philadelphia Inquirer, that FIFA had quietly agreed to cover 100% of Infantino’s US tax bill, around $4m by the end of his American assignment, without disclosing the arrangement to its 211 member associations.

The decision was taken by a three-person compensation committee in Bangkok in May 2024, led by Swiss accountant Bruno Chiomento, after Infantino relocated from Switzerland to Miami ahead of the World Cup. Senior FIFA officials quoted by the Times have questioned both the arithmetic that leaves Infantino contributing nothing himself, and the signal it sends inside the organisation.

Trump’s call that wiped a red card

The Trump connection has already defined one of the ugliest chapters of the tournament. On 1 July 2026, US forward Folarin Balogun was sent off against Bosnia and Herzegovina for stepping on Tarik Muharemovic’s ankle. Trump then telephoned Infantino, and two days later FIFA lifted the suspension under Article 27 of its disciplinary code, clearing Balogun to face Belgium.

Belgium’s football association said it was “astonished” and vowed to pursue every legal route. UEFA and CONCACAF have since demanded an explanation, and reports suggest the FIFA Council will be asked to vote on whether to prohibit disciplinary committees from overturning automatic World Cup suspensions at all.

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Nominations for the next FIFA presidential election close on 18 November 2026, with the vote scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat. Infantino has already confirmed he intends to stand.

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