By the way...

Big Gianni

Megalomania? Not for FIFA boss Gianni Infantino!

(Bild: AP)

In his review of the year, "Krone" columnist Harald Petermichl focuses on Gianni Infantino for a change. Which is understandable, as there is a lot to report about the FIFA boss. Not always positive.

Dr. Mir Zvonko's practice is just as much a possibility as Dr. Ingemar Stec's if you are looking for a place to go for treatment of mental illness in Brig in the Upper Valais (VS). Although both psychiatrists have the note "Please clarify admission of new patients" on their websites, it will be hard to refuse an appointment request from a well-known Arabophile soccer official from Brig, especially as the otherwise immense amount of time required for differential diagnostics should be extremely manageable given the clarity of the symptoms. According to a relevant diagnostic guide, as soon as you are dealing with someone "who is convinced that everything they do, say or think is great", there are already some indications of the clinical picture of megalomania caused by a narcissistic personality disorder.

Such people overestimate their abilities, have an exaggerated sense of self-worth and tend to downplay the abilities of others. They associate with people they consider special, join institutions of distinction and want to be admired, while at the same time having an exaggerated sense of importance and talent, constantly obsessing over fantasies of limitless achievement, influence or power, believing that they are unique, exploiting others to achieve their own goals and being arrogant and overbearing. From a diagnostic point of view, without wanting to pre-empt the medical professionals trained for this, this would probably not be witchcraft, especially since another characteristic, namely that the "type of behavior" of those affected is "compensated for by an intelligently used, well-networked and financed striving for power", also applies from the layman's point of view.

The question of how Dr. Zvonco or Dr. Stec should treat the patient Infantino is more difficult, because it is hard to believe that common methods to "reduce the lack of adaptability and socially undesirable behavior" or "change the personality traits that cause difficulties" could have any chance of success in this specific case. But who knows, perhaps Mr. President is not interested in having his delusions of grandeur, including fantasies of omnipotence, treated anyway, for two reasons: Firstly, he doesn't seem to suffer particularly from his symptoms, and secondly, a medical certificate could well be beneficial in terms of potential upcoming legal disputes, because you never know what ideas successors will come up with when they start to clean up their predecessor's office. Sepp Blatter can sing a whole songbook about it.

Sepp Blatter doesn't believe in gossip.

(Bild: AFP)

But you shouldn't rely on it, as the case of Manfred Schmider shows. The enterprising man from Baden had sold horizontal boring machines with his company FlowTex, probably the best of all time. Of the 3,400 machines sold, however, a closer look at the opaque web of snowballing companies revealed that only 220 of them actually existed. This eventually came to light and the businessman, who was also courted by Baden-Württemberg's Minister Presidents Späth and Teufel, was charged with fraudulent business practices with damages amounting to over two billion euros. The defense tried to avoid the worst and based its strategy on pleading their client's incapacity to plead guilty by attesting to Harry Potter syndrome, a special form of megalomania. But nothing came of it, she was sentenced to several years in prison and the story was subsequently turned into a third-rate musical entitled "Big Manni" at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

John Malkovich would be a great choice for the role of Infantino.

(Bild: ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/picturedesk.com)

And Gianni Infantino would certainly like that. A musical spectacle entitled "Big Gianni", which will be performed three times a day in a specially built 18,000-seat musical house somewhere in the Rub al-Khali desert, starting at the same time as the 2034 World Cup. Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham or John Malkovich should be asked to play the title role sooner rather than later. The hairstyle also has to fit.