Andrew Giuliani’s leading role in the World Cup is raising eyebrows among soccer leaders, who question if he’s up for the job of directing what Trump calls “the largest sporting event in the history of the world.”
When President Donald Trump appointed Giuliani, the son of disgraced former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, to be Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, FIFA leaders were highly skeptical of whether he had a real grasp on the job at hand.
Before the appointment, even Trump remained skeptical of Giuliani, privately asking allies, “Can Andrew do this?” according to the New York Times.
Giuliani himself has also contended that he isn’t a total expert on soccer, even as he has been tasked with running the world’s largest soccer tournament.
“I’ve been told ‘matches,’ not ‘games,’ I’m working on this right here,” he told reporters in December.
The White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 has been off to a bumpy start.
The president’s war with Iran has only complicated the matter, as Iran will compete in the U.S. in Los Angeles and Seattle at the start of the tournament.
The weekslong shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security also left Giuliani and much of the task force unpaid for several weeks.
FIFA was also taken aback by Trump floating the idea of changing the matches that have been planned for years.
While FIFA had originally lobbied for the creation of the task force, its leaders now wince at the implication that Giuliani is the organization’s leader, not FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the Times reported.
FIFA officials were privately annoyed by a video made by Giuliani and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in which Mullin said Giuliani is “running FIFA,” and Giuliani made no effort to correct him.
Still, FIFA has made public efforts to get on Trump’s good side ahead of the tournament. The organization awarded him the made-up “FIFA Peace Prize” last year after Trump failed to get his coveted Nobel Peace Prize.
The organization put on a show for Trump as he was awarded the phony prize at the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center last year, with Trump-favored musical acts like Andrea Bocelli and the Village People performing.
“Probably a smart touch,” Giuliani said of the entertainment that evening.
In the larger picture, Giulini joins several MAGA men who are looking to ride the tails of their fathers’ success in Trump’s orbit.
These duos include Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, son of Charles Kushner, who tried and failed to get a nuclear deal with Iran, and David Ellison, son of Trump donor Larry Ellison, who is building out Paramount Skydance to make legacy media outlets more Trump-friendly.
Last year, Giuliani said, “As men, we’re always either trying to make our parents or our kids proud of us.”
Giuliani, a failed gubernatorial candidate whose political future appears to be unknown, also appears to be acutely aware that much of his fate in Trumpworld hinges on how the World Cup goes.
“If I’m the story of the World Cup,” Giuliani said, “then the World Cup has not gone well.”
