De Laurentiis wanted to 'shoot' Infantino, then applauded his World Cup show

ROME, Sept 23 : Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has a gift for turning football politics into cinema, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino found himself cast as both villain and hero in the Italian film producer's latest monologue on the state of the game.

Speaking after receiving a lifetime achievement award from Italy's Foreign Press Association on Wednesday, De Laurentiis stopped short of directly attacking Infantino, who has faced calls to resign after exploring a plan under which private investors would have bought shares in the World Cup and other competitions.

Instead, the Napoli owner offered a barbed assessment of the FIFA chief's rise and global profile before admitting he had been impressed by the staging of this year's World Cup.

"Infantino is someone who does his job from his point of view," De Laurentiis said during the ceremony in Rome.

"If a once secretary is then allowed, once he becomes president, to do certain things and travel around the world wearing the FIFA badge, meeting Trump, meeting Putin, meeting everyone, what are we supposed to say to him? We have to say: he is doing his job from his perspective.

"This year, when I went to watch the World Cup matches, you saw these stadiums organised in an extraordinary way… I wanted to shoot Infantino; but when I saw how he had organised everything, I said: 'No, I hold my hands up, I have to say well done.'"

EUROPE FOOTBALL'S POWER STRUCTURES

De Laurentiis, whose Napoli have won two Serie A titles and five domestic cups since he rescued the club from bankruptcy more than two decades ago, was less charitable about European football's power structures.

"Sport is not in crisis in the United States, which is still that shining beacon; it is in crisis in Europe,"