FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has been accused of “abuse of power” after the group booked VIP airport escorts in Miami for the soccer fat cat’s wife and daughters, including one trip with their dogs, according to sources and official records.
His wife and daughters show up 125 times in Miami International Airport’s protocol logs since January 2024, records released to The Post show. The logs hold 95 records, many listing more than one family member.
On 63 of them, Gianni has no entry for those dates. His wife, Leena Infantino, shows up 46 times — nearly twice as often as her globe-trotting husband, who appears 24 times.
The Post has seen internal airport correspondence that shows FIFA demanding the red-carpet treatment for his daughters Alessia, Sabrina and Dahlia for a trip to Doha “with their dogs.”
Airport spokesman Greg Chin confirmed FIFA made the requests. Infantino heads a nongovernmental organization, and staffers were free, so “the service was granted,” Chin said.
That could spell an ethics headache for FIFA, two of Europe’s top sports governance experts told The Post. Its code bars officials from using their jobs “for private aims or gains.”
Antoine Duval of the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague said it “could constitute an abuse of position” under that code — if Infantino asked FIFA to arrange his family’s private travel.
That would be “a misuse of FIFA’s resources for his own private purpose,” said Duval, a senior researcher in sports law.
By the basic rules of good governance, “this is an abuse of position, an abuse of power,” said Arnout Geeraert of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who once chaired Belgian soccer’s integrity panel.
The Post has approached FIFA, the State Department, US Customs and Border Protection and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, for comment.
The Swiss-Italian sports boss has spent more time in Miami ahead of the World Cup, where FIFA has an office. The Infantino family reside at a celeb-packed condo on Biscayne Boulevard where David Beckham once had a plush pad.
Gianni’s VIP pass covered the whole clan, the official documents show.
Under the airport’s current rulebook, a protocol officer fast-tracks VIPs through check-in. The officer can ask for a special security lane and can line up early boarding.
“Standard practice” is to walk guests right “to the aircraft door.” If a gate agent balks, staff must keep calm and avoid “drawing unnecessary attention to the guest.”
On arrivals from abroad, an officer walks VIPs through the “Diplomatic Lane” at immigration. An electric cart can zip them to the curb.
Chin insisted the escorts can’t skip any step of customs or security screening. Every VIP request for a flight from abroad goes to US Customs and Border Protection for vetting, he said.
He did not say if the feds were told the FIFA boss wasn’t on the plane.
Miami Airport’s rulebook lists 27 VIP slots, from Supreme Court justices to school board members. Presidents and Cabinet ministers can bring their “traveling parties.”
The word “spouses” appears just once — next to chiefs of diplomatic missions.
Infantino fits the slot for NGO bosses. It says nothing about family, relatives or pets qualifying.
Chin pointed to part of the rulebook that shows anyone off the formal list gets a “case-by-case” review. The protocol division’s director or a designee must approve every request.
The only test, he added, is the VIP list categories and whether enough staffers are free. The office handles more than 5,000 requests a year, officials said.
A separate State Department escort program imposes tighter limits on its own VIP courtesies. Its rules allow escorts for a foreign Cabinet minister’s spouse and kids under 12 — but only when they fly with the minister.
“Other family members are not eligible,” its guidance says. The department’s protocol handbook adds that children of a qualifying dignitary “flying independently are not eligible” for its VIP port courtesies.
One former White House official who managed federal VIP arrivals told The Post that the arrangement is a gross misuse of government resources that would leave career protocol officers “disgusted.”
“This sounds like a little bit of an abuse,” the senior source said on the condition of anonymity. “These courtesies are offered as part of wider statecraft. It’s meant to be kept for higher honors.”
Josh Paul, a former diplomat and State Department director, added the perks “are not intended as gifts.”
But the airport says nothing stops it from serving families who fly alone. The VIP service runs on airport money, not county property taxes, the county budget shows.
The red-carpet treatment went beyond his wife and kids. Infantino’s sisters, Daniela and Mirella, snagged the perk twice during the World Cup. The logs tagged them “President’s Guest,” not family.
The gravy train hit top speed during the tournament. In 39 days, the Infantinos racked up 15 VIP records.
Gianni is on none of them. On July 9, two days before England played Norway in a Miami quarterfinal, the logs tagged daughters Sabrina and Shania Serena “Executive Guest.”
Overall, Dahlia shows up 29 times, Alessia 25, Sabrina 18 and Shania Serena seven. On 11 records, the daughters were logged with no entry for either parent.
Yet neither expert expects FIFA to act. The Zurich-based body could call the VIP escorts “standard protocol for security reasons,” Geeraert noted. He called the ethics committee “a notorious black box.”
Duval said “many” complaints against Infantino “were buried” by the panel’s investigators. He “would not bet on FIFA seriously investigating” Infantino “until he is a lame-duck.”
The panel’s independence “is hardly guaranteed,” Duval said. Its members are elected by the FIFA Congress — “whose majority is controlled by Infantino.”
At a company, “shareholders would react to something like this,” Geeraert said. But FIFA answers to soccer federations. Most, he said, would ask: “So what’s the problem here?”
While Infantino’s status as a global sports leader necessitates expedited airport security and logistical support for his own travel, standard diplomatic guidelines do not account for the perk’s broad extension.
There is no clear security justification for the dozens of times the protocol was utilized by his unaccompanied family members and pets.
It’s the latest flap for the 56-year-old, who is running for another four-year term in March.
The embattled soccer boss remains locked in a bitter civil war with UEFA. Infantino has faced fierce European backlash over his proposals for mega-buck tournament expansions and his clashes with the sport’s traditional power brokers.
The Post revealed Monday that Infantino and his inner circle worked their contacts in the Trump administration to land a new work permit for his Nicaraguan maid after her previous authorization had been revoked. FIFA issued a broad denial, but stopped short of addressing the involvement of one of its top aides in the affair.
The scandal emerged just weeks after this newspaper reported that Infantino used FIFA cash to hire a British public relations firm to push his re-election bid. The Zurich organization denied that story, too, but a Post reporter then obtained a leaked email pitch that confirmed it was true.
Last month, ESPN reported he got an undisclosed $1.72 million in 2024 from FIFA’s U.S. World Cup nonprofit. That came on top of a pay package worth about $4.9 million. FIFA said it “strongly rejects” the claims.
The day after the World Cup final in New Jersey, Miami’s protocol office logged Leena, Alessia, Dahlia, Sabrina and Shania Serena together. Gianni wasn’t on the list.
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