World Cup announcement chaos as technical issues ruin Gianni Infantino’s big moment | Football | Sport

FIFA’s announcement that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup was blighted by technical issues. In chaotic scenes, it appeared that the audio feed was lost as a speech was delivered live from Uruguay. 

Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the tournament in 10 years’ time and is set to be confirmed as the host. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been a strong supporter of the bid and has frequently visited the kingdom over the past few years. 

But there was embarrassment during a virtual FIFA congress as the audio feed was lot, leaving Infantino and other FIFA staff red-faced. The 54-year-old was sat alongside FIFA general secretary Mattias Grafstrom, with the two struggling to keep a straight face as it was announced that technical issues were causing the audio to be lost. 

The event was being broadcast live from Zurich but they had cut to a speech being made in Uruguay, the hosts of the first World Cup in 1930. However, nobody appeared to be able to hear the speech and the feed cut back to a sheepish Infantino. There were several moments before anyone spoke. 

A brief apology was then followed by a longer silence as staff battled to fix the issue. It was then announced that a video would be played over the top of the feed until the issue was sorted. 

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