‘Full support’ for Infantino may spark world football ‘open warfare'
· Yahoo Sports
FIFA’s declaration of “full support” for its under-fire president Gianni Infantino will spark open warfare in world football politics, sources have told the Press Association.
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Infantino held a crisis meeting with FIFA’s management board in Morocco on Wednesday following more than a week of calls for him to quit over his plan to sell stakes in a company which would manage the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments to private investors.
The meeting in Rabat concluded with those executives giving him their backing and recognising Infantino was “the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations”.
The private investor plan was rejected by three continental confederations last week, with UEFA even threatening to boycott all FIFA competitions unless the proposal was scrapped.
Even when the plan was withdrawn last Saturday, UEFA stated hours later it had “lost confidence” in Infantino’s leadership, with a number of European nations including England and Wales having since pulled their support for his re-election next year.
FIFA said “mistakes were acknowledged” at Wednesday’s meeting around how the plans for the creation of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) company were developed. The most controversial aspect of the plan was to sell a 20 per cent stake in FFE to private investors.
“It was agreed that it was not the intention for the FIFA Council and FIFA member associations to feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently,” the FIFA statement on Wednesday continued.
“It was further acknowledged that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media.”
The statement promised a review would take place, with a report to be presented at the next FIFA Council meeting. However, it also insisted “everything that was done was done in full compliance with the FIFA regulatory framework”.
The statement said: “With the project withdrawn, it was agreed that FIFA will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process and will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard its name and reputation.”
The Press Association understands anger among national associations has only been further stoked by the stance adopted by Infantino in Wednesday’s update, in particular the insistence that everything was done within FIFA rules. Sources predicted ‘open warfare’ would now ensue.
Prior to Wednesday’s statement, members of the FIFA Council were understood to be working to achieve the majority of 19 needed to request Infantino to convene an extraordinary general meeting, where he could be held to account over FFE, and also the Folarin Balogun case which had hugely upset some members.
Council members are understood to remain committed to forcing a ‘governance boycott’ if they cannot reach the majority, or if they do reach the majority and Infantino refuses the request to hold a meeting.
Councillors intend to stay away from meetings if this is not properly addressed – effectively incapacitating FIFA operations – such is their anger at Infantino’s conduct.
FIFA’s statement also said Infantino had the “full support” of his secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, who on Tuesday was understood to have written an email to FIFA staff referring to the FFE episode as a “sad and reproachable series of events”.
Earlier on Wednesday, former Portugal star Luis Figo called for Infantino to quit, and told the Daily Mail the Swiss’ conduct over FFE was “the lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested behaviour I have ever witnessed”.
Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of one of this summer’s World Cup co-hosts Canada, said he did not have any confidence in Infantino any more, saying the exclusion of key people from the creation of the FFE proposal “should be fatal”.
UEFA has been contacted for comment regarding FIFA’s statement.