[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"header-nav":3,"footer-nav":29,"article-infantino-book-surfing-rainbow-delusion":82,"category-counts-nav":95,"related-infantino-book-surfing-rainbow-delusion":106},[4,8,11,14,17,20,23,26],{"label":5,"to":6,"exact":7},"Home","\u002F",true,{"label":9,"to":10},"World Cup","\u002Fworldcup",{"label":12,"to":13},"Standings","\u002Fstandings",{"label":15,"to":16},"Football","\u002Fcategory\u002Ffootball",{"label":18,"to":19},"Basketball","\u002Fcategory\u002Fbasketball",{"label":21,"to":22},"Tennis","\u002Fcategory\u002Ftennis",{"label":24,"to":25},"F1","\u002Fcategory\u002Ff1",{"label":27,"to":28},"Long Reads","\u002Fcategory\u002Flong-reads",{"brand":30,"columns":32,"tagline":80,"copyright":81},{"description":31},"In-depth sports journalism covering football, basketball, tennis, F1, and beyond. Daily analysis, long reads, and expert opinion.",[33,51,59],{"heading":34,"links":35},"Leagues",[36,39,42,45,48],{"label":37,"to":38},"Premier League","\u002Ftag\u002Fpremier-league",{"label":40,"to":41},"La Liga","\u002Ftag\u002Fla-liga",{"label":43,"to":44},"NBA","\u002Ftag\u002Fnba",{"label":46,"to":47},"Formula 1","\u002Ftag\u002Fformula-1",{"label":49,"to":50},"Champions League","\u002Ftag\u002Fchampions-league",{"heading":52,"links":53},"Content",[54,56,57],{"label":55,"to":16},"Analysis",{"label":27,"to":28},{"label":58,"to":16},"Data & Stats",{"heading":60,"links":61},"Company",[62,65,68,71,74,77],{"label":63,"to":64},"Terms of Service","\u002Fservice",{"label":66,"to":67},"Privacy Policy","\u002Fprivacy",{"label":69,"to":70},"Editorial Policy","\u002Feditorial",{"label":72,"to":73},"Contact Us","\u002Fcontact",{"label":75,"to":76},"About Us","\u002Fabout",{"label":78,"to":79},"Website Disclaimer","\u002Fdisclaimer","Built for the love of sport","© SportPulse. All rights reserved.",{"title":83,"slug":84,"category":15,"badge":85,"author":86,"excerpt":87,"date":88,"readTime":89,"image":90,"imageAlt":83,"tags":91,"body":93,"_path":94},"Reading Infantino's Book So You Never Have To","infantino-book-surfing-rainbow-delusion","Opinion","James Hart","Barney Ronay dissects FIFA President Gianni Infantino's biography—a name-dropping, despot-fluffing trip through a rainbow of delusion.","2026-06-10","2 min read","https:\u002F\u002Fi.guim.co.uk\u002Fimg\u002Fmedia\u002Ff3785d30ffadd28050456f23aa489e87093d4f7d\u002F0_0_3543_2835\u002Fmaster\u002F3543.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=cc15102e60e969883ee06487886e4a6d",[92,9],"FIFA","## A Rainbow of Nonsense\n\nGianni Infantino’s biography is not just a book. It is a **glittering monument to self-delusion**, a printed parade of name-drops and autocrat cuddles that reads like a corporate fever dream. Barney Ronay endured every page, and his verdict is damning: this is a work that peddles **magical thinking** because there is no other way to explain the FIFA president’s **ludicrous proximity to power**.\n\nThe prose is as hollow as a World Cup promise. Infantino doesn’t so much write as **float through a fog of platitudes**, punctuated by jarring encounters with strongmen. It’s a book where football is merely the backdrop for one man’s relentless self-mythologizing.\n\n### The Quote That Says It All\n\nRonay highlights a moment of unintended poetry that encapsulates the entire project:\n\n> “Gliding through time as if surfing a rainbow, you can transform uncertainty into something beautiful.”\n\nThat’s not a rejected Coldplay lyric—it’s a genuine line from the FIFA president’s biography. It’s the kind of **vapid positivism** that brushes past real issues like human rights abuses or corruption investigations. The book never surfs the rainbow back to accountability.\n\n## The Despot Fluffing\n\nInfantino’s memoir is essentially a **who’s who of authoritarian regimes**, each head of state lavished with the same oily praise. The president doesn’t just govern football—he **collects despots like trading cards**. The book’s pages are sticky with forced intimacy: private dinners, glowing testimonies, shared moments of “vision.”\n\n- **Vladimir Putin** appears as a wise, misunderstood statesman.\n- **Recep Tayyip Erdoğan** is painted as a generous host.\n- **Gulf state royals** glide through as generous partners in the beautiful game.\n\nRonay’s review spares no one. The book, he argues, is less a biography and more a **forensic exhibit of soft power laundering** through football.\n\n### The Real Worst Book?\n\nRonay jests that the title of “worst book ever” should go to something that tried to be good—a terrible Norman Mailer novel where a tough-guy genius fistfights a zebra on an oil rig. But Infantino’s book is uniquely awful because it **weaponizes banality**. It’s not just badly written; it’s a **political tool disguised as a memoir**.\n\n## The Verdict\n\nThis volume won’t be found in the sports section. It belongs in the **horror aisle**, next to manuals on autocracy and propaganda. Reading it, you don’t learn about football. You learn how a **bureaucrat with a messiah complex** sees the world—distorted, sweet-smelling, and utterly detached from the terraces.\n\nRonay’s sacrifice spares the rest of us. Let his eye twitches from 300 pages of **rainbow-surfing prose** be a warning: this is not a book. It’s a symptom.","\u002Farticles\u002Finfantino-book-surfing-rainbow-delusion",[96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105],"analysis","basketball","cricket","f1","football","general","golf","mma","long-reads","tennis",[107,120,131],{"id":108,"stem":108,"path":109,"title":110,"category":15,"badge":111,"badgeType":112,"author":113,"authorRole":114,"authorInitials":115,"date":116,"readTime":89,"image":117,"imageAlt":110,"tags":118,"excerpt":119},"arsenal-williams-juventus-martinez-psg-olise-transfer-gossip","\u002Farticles\u002Farsenal-williams-juventus-martinez-psg-olise-transfer-gossip","Arsenal Chase Williams, Juve Target Martinez, PSG Want Olise","Transfers","tag","Marcus Kewell","SportPulse Contributor","MK","2026-06-18","https:\u002F\u002Fichef.bbci.co.uk\u002Face\u002Fstandard\u002F976\u002Fcpsprodpb\u002Fab9b\u002Flive\u002F03529e90-6519-11f1-b280-8babe0ebcc6b.png","Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1","Arsenal pursue Nico Williams, Juventus open Martinez talks, and PSG target Olise in a hectic transfer roundup.",{"id":121,"stem":121,"path":122,"title":123,"category":15,"badge":111,"badgeType":112,"author":124,"authorRole":114,"authorInitials":125,"date":126,"readTime":127,"image":128,"imageAlt":123,"tags":129,"excerpt":130},"konate-real-madrid-free-transfer","\u002Farticles\u002Fkonate-real-madrid-free-transfer","Konate Inches From Real Madrid on Free Transfer","Liam Carter","LC","2026-06-09","1 min read","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1574629810360-7efbbe195018?auto=format&fit=crop&w=1920&q=80","Premier League, La Liga","France defender Ibrahima Konate is in advanced talks to join Real Madrid on a free transfer after leaving Liverpool.",{"id":132,"stem":132,"path":133,"title":134,"category":15,"badge":135,"badgeType":112,"author":136,"authorRole":114,"authorInitials":137,"date":138,"readTime":139,"image":140,"imageAlt":134,"tags":9,"excerpt":141},"salah-exorcises-world-cup-demons-egypt-historic-win","\u002Farticles\u002Fsalah-exorcises-world-cup-demons-egypt-historic-win","Salah Exorcises Demons as Egypt Claim First-Ever World Cup Win","Match Report","Adebayo Oluwafemi","AO","2026-06-23 05:47:16","7 min read","https:\u002F\u002Fichef.bbci.co.uk\u002Face\u002Fstandard\u002F976\u002Fcpsprodpb\u002F43c7\u002Flive\u002F78d9b8c0-6dec-11f1-bb15-8fda38f0ff7f.jpg","Ninety-two years of waiting ended as Mohamed Salah fired Egypt to a landmark World Cup victory."]