Edi Umoh
Embattled FIFA President, Gianni Infantino has rejected calls to resign for now and apologised for the “mistakes” surrounding his controversial World Cup sell-off plan.
This was as Uefa, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Concacaf, the regional federation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean were in solidarity with UEFA in planned boycott of FIFA’s tournaments.
Infantino was forced to abandon his plans – namely to sell stakes in the World Cup and other Fifa tournaments to private investors – after public uproar last week, with Uefa confirming a boycott of Fifa events if the plan was voted through.
In a statement released after seven hours of crisis talks in Morocco, FIFA said its management board had reaffirmed its “full support” for Infantino – including secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, only days after he had labelled the World Cup plans “a sad and reproachable series of events”.
“We acknowledge mistakes were made in the process of the proposed establishment of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE),” read part of the letter.
“It was certainly not the intention for the FIFA Council and FIFA Member Associations to feel excluded from the process, and it should have been handled differently. We acknowledge that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media.
“We sincerely apologise for these errors and commit to them not happening again. With this in mind, we will conduct a necessary review, and a report will be presented to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting.”
However, any suggestion that Infantino might resign, or otherwise be forced out of his job by senior figures at the governing body, were also nipped in the bud with a clear show of support for the embattled president.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the FIFA Secretary General and the Management Board in attendance reaffirm their full support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 FIFA Member Associations,” read part of the statement.
“It was discussed and agreed at the meeting that the processes, communications and interactions between the FIFA President, the FIFA Secretary General and the Management Board that support the delivery of this vision can and should always be continuously improved in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency.
“We are fully confident that the outcomes of today’s meeting will strengthen FIFA’s governance, help restore confidence in the organisation and enable us to prepare for the major events and challenges ahead in a united and transparent manner while continuing our mission to develop the game around the world.”
The statement also went on to say that any attacks on Fifa’s integrity or good governance will not be accepted and seemed to suggest that now the sell-off plan has been abandoned, the whole situation should be quietly forgotten.
”The proposal, which would have been subject to the approval of the FIFA Member Associations and the FIFA Council, is now off the table,” read another part of the statement. “With the project withdrawn, 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.
“There are always lessons to be learned, and we will continue to improve our processes in light of this experience. In this instance, however, it is important to stress that, although mistakes were made, everything that was done, was done in full compliance with the FIFA regulatory framework.”
Meanwhile, Infantino and other senior FIFA figures Wednesday gathered in Morocco for a crisis meeting to discuss the failed $20 billion FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal and how the world governing body would move forward.
But his tenure is facing an unprecedented threat amid a wave of global fury over the scrapped plan, which called for the creation of a new commercial subsidiary, called the FIFA Forward Enterprise, to run events such as the World Cup.
Calls for Resignation
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country co-hosted the 2026 World Cup, joined Wednesday an international chorus of criticism of Gianni Infantino, saying he no longer had confidence in his ability to lead FIFA.
“Certainly I don’t have confidence in Mr Infantino, after this point, given what transpired,” Carney told reporters when asked about FIFA’s chief and his now-shelved plan to open the World Cup up to private investment.
Similarly, Norway has called on Fifa president Gianni Infantino to resign following his aborted attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, but Mexico and Argentina have voiced their support for the 56-year-old.
Norway have gone a step further than the football associations of England, Wales, Croatia and Albania, all of whom have withdrawn support for Infantino without explicitly calling for him to resign.
“He [Infantino] does not have the institutional trust required to govern Fifa stably in the times we are in,” Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness said on Friday.
“There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. The international football cooperation is very much in trouble, and we must have a reason to get together now, and we want to ask the Fifa president to resign now.
“We will see which other countries eventually join in, if that becomes the strategy from the Uefa board. We are not going to ask for an extraordinary [Uefa board] meeting, we will ask him to resign in our dialogue with Fifa.”
