Sunil Gulati explains United States voting in FIFA presidential election

U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati gave a lengthy interview to Fox Sports' Kate Abdo and Grant Wahl after the FIFA presidential election had concluded. As Fox's coverage was airing on Fox Sports 2 at the time, many of you might not have seen all of Gulati's remarks.

I've transcribed some highlights below, and you can watch a video of the full segment above.

On UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino winning the election:

Very positive. We've known Gianni a long time, I've known him personally for a long time, and we're looking forward to working with him. He understands the U.S. side of things quite well. There's lots of similarities in what they do in Europe and what we do. He's committed to reform. He's a late entry into the race, [due to] a lot of circumstances, but I'm very pleased with that outcome.

On the United States' decision to publicly endorse Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan, then vote for him in the first round and Infantino in the second round:

Well, look. We [the members of U.S. Soccer's delegation in Zurich] talked this morning and we said we were going to do [what we decided] last night in voting for Prince Ali. There's a reason we waited until very late in the game to make that announcement - there's two reasons. One is we had two candidates we very much liked, and second is I wanted the members of our board to be able to go through a [vetting] process - they knew those candidates not as well as I did. And we had a tough decision.

It was a tough discussion with Gianni last night, saying, "This is what we are going to do in the first round." Gianni understood that - I'm not going to say he loved the idea, but he also understood very clearly that we'd be with him when it mattered. Right after the first ballot ended, we got Ali and Gianni together. The three of us, we had a discussion, and some good things happened in the second ballot.

[...]

I told [Infantino] personally before we put anything out publicly. I met with him and said, "This is what we are going to do." He wasn't ecstatic about it, obviously, but he also knew when I said it to him, that we would be with him when it mattered. And as long as he was in the race - he knew exactly. We had talked about it. I've talked with Gianni as much as I've talked with any candidate over the last six months. We've met five, six, seven times. So it's a good outcome.

On his intense lobbying efforts toward FIFA delegates between rounds of the election, much of which was captured from afar by Fox cameras and broadcast live to the American television audience:

First of all, I'm not going to be a power-broker in FIFA. Today was a good day for the sport, as I said earlier. Getting the reforms passed, getting a good outcome in this election, that's positive. If we were able to play a small role in that, we're very happy.

Two people from CONCACAF, Sam Gandhi and Victor Montagliani* were important in the reform committee. So we're real pleased about that. And we took a leadership role in that process, and this afternoon as well. So we're happy about that.

But it's not about me individually and power. I know a lot of people here, that part is true. And there were a lot of people in CONCACAF that had split the vote, it was pretty clear, in that first [round]. To the extent that we could help them reach the right conclusion from our perspective and talk to them, I'm glad it worked out that way.

* - The former is a New York-based lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP the latter is the president of the Canadian Soccer Association and the likely next head of CONCACAF.

On whether Infantino's election, and the role the U.S. may have played in it, could increase the odds of the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup:

You know, I don't want to [get into it] - this is a good day for the sport. The reforms got passed this morning. We have a candidate that we're supportive of, that we get along very well with, that understands the nuances of the American market. I think it's a little early to talk about 2026, but I think you can rest assured that it got brought up in some of the discussions we've had over the last couple days.

After the Fox interview, Gulati spoke with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap outside the convention hall in Zurich where the election took place. You can watch the video here. A few highlights from Gulati's remarks

One of the reasons we announced our support so late in the game is we had two candidates that we've been very impressed with. We met with all of them yesterday. It was a tough decision. In the end, it came down to: we were loyal to Prince Ali, we had supported him previously. Gianni understood very well why we did that, and that if it came down the way it did, that he'd have our support later in the rounds.

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UEFA is an extraordinarly successful organization. [Infantino] knows the soccer side of things, he knows the business side of things. He obviously showed off his lingustic abilities today. And he's a good man. He's committed to the reform issues that have been very important to us, and he understands the U.S. market is as well - and how important the U.S. market could be not only for FIFA, but how important it could be for the sport more broadly speaking.