Gianni Infantino has the “full support” of Fifa’s management board despite being forced to abandon his plan to sell stakes in a company to run the World Cup to private investors.
The Swiss’ plan was rejected by three continental confederations before it was withdrawn and led to Uefa threatening to boycott Fifa competitions until it was scrapped.
He held a crisis meeting with senior Fifa executives in Morocco on Wednesday and emerged with their support.
“The FIFA secretary general and members of the FIFA management board reaffirmed their full support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations,” a statement from the global governing body read.
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“In turn, the FIFA president reiterated his full support for the FIFA secretary general and the FIFA administration for their necessary and outstanding work in the delivery of his vision.”
Mattias Grafstrom, the secretary general referenced in the statement, is understood to have written an email to staff on Tuesday in which he described Infantino’s proposal to create Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) to manage Fifa competitions and sell a 20 per cent stake to private investors as “sad and reproachable”.
Wednesday night’s statement presented a more united picture following the Rabat summit, however.
[ Gianni Infantino’s remarkable rise from Uefa bureaucrat to ‘king of soccer’Opens in new window ]
“FIFA’s top management is 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,” it continued.
The statement said “mistakes were acknowledged” regarding the FFE plan at Wednesday’s meeting.
“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. It was further acknowledged that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media,” it added.
The statement confirmed a separate letter had been sent to member associations and the Fifa Council apologising for the errors, along with a commitment that they would not happen again. The statement said Fifa would now conduct a review of what had happened which would then be presented to the council.
It added: “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.”
Uefa has said it has “lost confidence” in Infantino, with the English and Welsh football associations among those to have withdrawn support for his re-election next year.
Before 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 to hold him to account over FFE and the Folarin Balogun case.
The council members were prepared to force a “governance boycott” if they could not reach the majority, or if Infantino refused the request to hold a meeting. Councillors intended to stay away from meetings, therefore effectively incapacitating Fifa operations, such is their anger at Infantino’s conduct.
The Press Association understands that anger has only been further stoked by the stance adopted by Infantino in Wednesday’s update, with sources predicting “open warfare” would ensue.
Fifa’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour told the Associated Press last week that the Fifa administration had been “deceived” by Infantino, while Portugal star Luis Figo joined the criticism earlier on Wednesday, saying Infantino’s conduct over FFE was the “lowest, most deceitful, and cravenly self-interested behaviour I have ever witnessed”.
Elsewhere, the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said that he had no confidence in Infantino’s leadership.
Carney’s intervention could be more significant than Figo’s, as the former governor of the Bank of England is close to the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, who is being urged to run against Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election. – PA/The Guardian
Source: The Irish Times
