Philipp Lahm has strongly criticised FIFA president and appealed to UEFA ahead of the home European Championship in Germany.
Rio World Cup captain Philipp Lahm has strongly criticised Swiss world governing body president Gianni Infantino. “FIFA has lost further credibility through its top representative. One has the impression more and more that Gianni Infantino is not looking for the best solution in the interests of football and that he simply lacks integrity,” Lahm wrote in his column for RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
The child had already fallen into the well twelve years ago with the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar. Lahm: “Infantino does not give the impression that he wants to change anything. He is taking advantage of the game. That is the problem of FIFA, an institution based in Europe – not of football. And the only way to change that is to finally focus on a sensible, transparent award procedure in the future.”
According to Lahm, the Europeans “must now stand together and prevent another scandal like the one that occurred during the awarding of the 2010 World Cup”. Integrity must be shown, “Europe must remain defensible,” said the 39-year-old long-time Bayern star, “because a World Cup without Europe doesn’t work. Many of the Argentines play in Europe, the French anyway, even the Moroccans are oriented towards Europe”. The tournament director wants to “bring our values more to the fore again at EURO 2024, and above all the game. In a democratic country – and I think people are keen on that”.
Lahm, a member of an internal working group of the German Football Association (DFB), also wants to help get the world’s largest single sports association back on track. “The first decisions have been made within the DFB, now we will start work in our groups and do everything we can to create identification with the national team, with the association, again with a view to the home European Championships,” stressed the former world-class player. After the recent disappointments, however, this will certainly not be an easy task.