i'm at the second moscow venue. this is spot moscow stadium and each of the five game set up being played more than forty five thousand people will be watching on from the stands on the scene. when he takes. to play them minus the deputes and the pick surprise from the year two years ago iceland i'm in the capital an obviously a lot of stuff is going on what exactly. might and i'm going to take some of that stuff out. i'm in the middle of. and you can just sense oh well it's just around the corner holding games tomorrow and asked so many people in the streets and you can hear the accents not rushing only. from everywhere in the world and sense of place in the world. fine in the beginning.

i'm on top of one of the big but cell phone use and taxi we've got the red square there it's completely empty it's closed that's a big crunch like going on tonight and one of the stop the fullness there's a guy that i met simply just the pianist they just met sort of he's invited me to it. but this is where i'm going to spend the whole world cup. that's a studio i'll show you what. this is a lot of people just. these are the cameras so i'm going to be looking at that for most of the world and the view is simply.

stunning i have to say that. who is reading this the first that he. sees. speak and he joins me live now. he said made it easier for fans to access the championship process can take you know look. this is where. the whole program that is going to do during the world cup click in a huge play where you have all the camera feeds. this is my camera here. so basically i'm going to be standing there with the with the red square in the background. my country and. then my place on the sixteenth then we play australia and then we

end up playing. france here in moscow and if you are in moscow. a really good stead if you really want to see football history we've got the football museum here that fisa has made especially for the world cup. i'm testing myself on the i don't know if i answer this right. yes. so miles out of sight and i. see it you know. trophy. it was stolen base it's you know with you know one and it's never been recalled with. since he's the only goalkeeper ever so when the ball and all and then one the the world cup in one nine hundred sixty six it's a law long time ago and when you have an association with them and seal how desperate they win the trophy. he got threatened spec'ing by all of the

guns you can call if you don't quite fit as well so they played in the one nine hundred seventy full final and germany won it's who won. so when we were at the joy and in moscow and in december i met george coupled with a legendary make simple goal people who while they can special forces should so tom who was not the size of you'd expect the gold people to be actually quite small but he always wore these sort of close and they will couple of numbers too big for his . message ronaldo that both going to be there. you contenders for that is name. is really one methodology and if you manages to get it fit. and here. from here it's about. as a space for the two thousand and eighteen world cup in russia so so cool when

lifting the trophy. the world cup is just around the corner so i've gone to syria to defeat to

headquarters to meet the man in charge gianni infantile. it's his first world cup of coffee for president and i'm really intrigued to hear what he has to say this is your first world cup afifa president you've been obviously been to the european championships you've been to world cup before but now your fee for president so what are you looking forward to. by don't think too much of them see the president who are good but i am really trying to think about the world cup us as i would think. i would have thought about it four years ago or eight years ago as a football fan assessor mother was special obviously being fully aware of the responsibility that the position of the president is about but i'm i'm really looking forward because the world cup is the best competition in the world is where you have the biggest emotions is the competition where everyone in the world speaks about

football and about the match of the night before whatever team plays whether it's. our eyes on the wild card for the first time or brazil or germany everyone in the streets in zurich or in john as work they speak about that and they live with it. and it will be it will be just fantastic it will be emotional it's also in a particular time i think where we need to feel some some unity in the world and some unity around football i think is there that that's a very very big issue because it is no secret a lot of tension between the world and the world cup host nation. how are fifa how are you dealing with that i mean how he sort of. coming in making this the best event in the world with all that's going on at the moment by focusing on football i think that's the key and that's the secret we have to focus on food but i think

there are enough. sadly people around the world to try to just you know divide or argue or dispute or whatever we have to try to unite. football is uniting football is has this this magic and this power of bringing people together we don't want to make politics we don't want to take positions on whether and who is right or wrong we have to organize football and if thanks to football we can send those on messages of unity and football is about bringing together about enjoying about about creating an atmosphere which will show to the world as well a country like russia with one hundred fifty million people who want to welcome the world in their and their country and i think football has this power to change those are the perception of people about the country and about maybe

a particular period in time and i'm sure that this world cup. in russia this but they get a moment of time we'll have quite a significant impact we've been fortunate in in the years in france we saw some really ugly scenes. and it's a worry i mean looking at it from going into the tournament it's a worry that that there is this thing happening in russia with internal matches and how a fifa dealing with that or the thirty's dealing with that is again something that people shouldn't be afraid of there is certainly something that is that was very seriously. everyone is aware but they are the authorities in russia of the situation of the different. supporter groups who are. biola and so the focus will be done. or will be will be put on on

the on the rug a deal making sure this doesn't happen and this can be done in an event which is you know happening in one man's very much focus of a lot of preparation unfortunately idiots are living all over the world and violence around football is happening all over the world as well when you are over south america or. africa or whatever else this is something that we always have to focus on generally it's not an easy one because violence is also a reflection of society. but for a big event like like the world cup the attention is very much this is safe to go to russia of course it is safe to to russia. for this and it will be very safe but it will be even safer the world russia during the world cup because the authorities in russia a notch aware of what the world cup means and they want to feel as well and

welcoming country and. the preparations in terms of security for the little club are beyond any other. events so the conditions will be there for a very safe world cup and obviously those who want to go and enjoy football and enjoy a part of the summer they should go to russia those who want to go to have riots or whatever they better go somewhere else exactly go somewhere else how much how much is fifa new involved in setting you know the security and organizing that do you have a saying and how all that should be dealt with it's the police authorities and so on and in russia who are in charge of security obviously we are in contact with them we can share with them the experience that we have teeth.

from previous events coordinations contacts council of europe for example where russia is also part as well as all other european countries have specific task forces in terms of security because you know you can always learn and make things better so this is all taken very much into account and we think we have an active role in contributing to that is what you said before you don't see is of his future president but you are you also a private person and a football fan so when when you plan your schedule for the world cup how is it important you watch all the all the teams play at some point yes and i'm going to do that yes i'm i'm planning to to watch all the teams and to be in all the venues at least once. venues i can see this is that's doable but has the ability for eleven hours how rather do that that is sometimes too much is per day.

but. i must do this. i want to do that i want to see those i want to experience it it's a it's a fantastic ok asian and it's also a question of respect for those who who are participating you know defeat a president has to be there it's very clear we we had a bit of a debate when we did the things i'm going in in moscow with the joe and since then you you have announced that it's going to be part of the world cup but it's also been written into the laws of football yes so why now. why you know because. we tested it for two years. and because the results of the tests were kruse if and have managed to convince us that we should. make this step this is

what we have decided to years ago well let's test it for two years and in two years if it works if we are committed it works people in the laws of the game and everyone can and every competition or it has a kind of decide if he wants to use it or not. personally i was. very skeptical i have to say at the beginning i did not really believe that. it could work because i was afraid about the flow of the game and interruptions of these kind of things. but on the other side you know for decades everyone was saying well we should have some video for the referees and so on and so forth and it's true that. in two thousand and eighteen if everyone in front of his t.v. or inside the stadium with his mobile phone known within a few seconds whether the press committed

a big mistake and the only one who doesn't know it is the referee himself we make something wrong at the referee does noise not because he doesn't want to know it but because we prohibit him from the point but everyone else knows that it's not right it doesn't feel right so we had to make these tests i have to say that i was i completely changed my mind and convinced that it's the right thing personally to do but whatever my position is generally. considered that it's or i think too because of the results of the tests with se there are around one thousand matches with more than one thousand matches. matches not friendly sufficient matches and the result has been that without the a r there would have been or there was one clear mistake over every every three games with we are there is one clear mistake of a referee every ninety eight. the accuracy. of example the

a curacy of the decision without v.a.r. . ease of ninety three percent of the referee's decision which is already extremely high ninety three percent of the things are correct we three are these percentage goes up to ninety nine percent so hundred percent but it's ninety nine rather than ninety three when he goes to the interruption to the flow of the game. one of the statistics there which has really culture my my attention which i was not aware of a lot isn't actually on every match we lose seven minutes for steroids. seven minutes throwing doesn't decide anything else while you're able to destroy the sites again. eight point fifteen seconds on tricking yes but minutes to think that they are is one minute per game. and they decide the gate

so we can lose one mate per game if this has an impact on the result. set so it's been two years since you were elected for president. an interesting time i assume what was what's it been like a very interesting time a very challenging time the last two years with me incredible incredible experiences of course coming in in a very very difficult moment for four feet first albeit an easy task but. to refocus thief on football has been the most important to achieve things and challenged that we had obviously reforms to be implemented but more than that i

think we have we've been really focusing on the full believe element on not investment in development programs with the photo program all around the world on. you for my part of the world cup with forty eight teams of twenty twenty six to give more chance to more countries all around the world to participate focusing on women's football focusing on news football focusing on the club world cup where we study new ideas so i think not to speak about the pitch as well obviously with the we are i won't start or things it will be a challenging time but i realized even more that football is the number one. one sport all over the world and we have to cherish this and to protect this to a lot of good ideas and you focus on a little but the fact is a lot of people left for various reasons. and you need people to implement all

this is is it has been a big challenge to get the right people in and are you there and i with the right organization or we're working on that we're working on it of course it's it's never easy to to change organization because we have to change the culture as well of the organization from the top being i will the white organization it brings additional challenges as well in terms of cultures of mentalities of people and what they want to do here in fever is really also in the administration to bring people from all over the world because this. is maybe at the beginning a bit more complicated because you need to understand each other but it is also enriching an organization like this is maybe the the biggest difference because before you were employed to lead you if and now you are elected to to lead the world of football that you have to you have to look at all the diversity all the

cultural differences and you have to sort of make sure there's common ground that's absolutely right that is the main the main difference is not just about executing isn't just about being involved in an operational function but it's much much wider than that and it is worldwide and who is important all over the world and wherever you go. in the world whether it's in east asia south africa or in the caribbeans wherever there are challenges and the response for football and you have to take all of this into account and of the same time if to keep your line and do things because if you go for the lowest common denominator you don't do anything we don't want personally is a key word travelling the world to experience different ways of passion would have been surprised. of is it's really the passion of existing countries which i would

never have expected like we have now through the enemy's national team on the frontier fleet arrived second in the asian cup and the way they celebrated the team when it came back it took them five hours from the airport to the city center roof millions of fans and in the streets. that has been just just an amazing experience and. speaking to be enemies people who look what we can imagine is countries like vietnam on springs was pleased and that states exactly did that the level of football generally all over the world is growing the passion for growing. in world cup just because of how do what our main job is which is to develop football because we all know the least for development is success for example i'm always giving is you know imagine. and your striker is in

front of the goalkeeper and shoots and he hits the post and the ball goes out the team is or should be sacked the president of the cricket world knows well enough reading the post well he is still world cup. and saucer holes and just this just because the two foster they sent me to i'm smiling because a forty eight team idea would have happened back then. it would be on a more personal. like me you came to them a house that's that's right and being of immigrants or being an immigrant. it. helps as well that in these times even more. than in switzerland certainly. and you're into it and you have to find always you know ways to to get a loan football has always helped. to find dialogue to find

ways to fargo and sent five around the bowl and the rubble matches and you think. so this openness for diversity in different cultures and that is helping. yes i'm convinced and comments that this is this is helping when you are part of a minority in a place you and many others or at least that's the feeling you get but you know when you grow tool in different places different. today quite natural to resist yes when did it not seen already and what we can see what football can can move for example has been about development of women's football in some countries and i went to iran and western europe for going to iraq is now of iran but for what do we achieve if we just criticize if we just dispute if we just argue if we block if we

boycott what do we achieve which is nothing if we go if we dialogue maybe we achieve only a little bit but even a little bit is better than nothing and maybe which is nothing but at least we keep the dialogue and the discussion open and maybe one day we achieve chief something thanks to my philosophy has always been and will always be like this because. also us as we were saying before i grew up this way and switzerland as a country gives you this opportunity and to. to grow and to make your way sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less but that's only always with an open mind set the very hardest question i say that for last it's really not in the world cup. in three or finish here so so growing up. speaking is it five languages you speak perfect and more or less include up in switzerland where you have influence from to germany to france and

everywhere. and they're all there you know you know. who you're going to support that's a tough one i support the referees a. good one hope the referees team will succeed by it's tough it's tough i think the wallet is missing and we'll miss you in the world cup he adds already like your ideas as well in all these traditional teams who have made the history of the world cup but the thirty two best up at that so how would this ties in with with your idea about the smaller countries must have an opportunity yes so the bigger country needs the needs to say they need to stay on their game they can't just expect so but you still haven't answered my question which team i was supposed yeah. that mark. i've really gotten rid of that we were allowed to see on every every free at the beginning and

then the next three as well and then obviously you are going to get us the final so that i would do that was sure so. i want to thank you very much and very very interesting everything so thank you very much for spending this half an hour the brilliant thank you. world cup festivities kick off in moscow where.