It is official – Gianni Infantino has lost Ireland.
The Football Association of Ireland confirmed in a statement on Thursday that it is rescinding a letter of support for Infantino’s re-election as Fifa president, echoing many of its European friends and partners in pointing to issues around governance, transparency and consultation that have been laid bare by botched plans to sell off a stake in the World Cup.
Less notable than the FAI’s withdrawal of support is its timing. To paraphrase a couple of senior European football figures The Irish Times has spoken to in the last few days: what has taken it so long?
Wales was first out of the traps 10 days ago, issuing a public statement officially reneging on support for Infantino. Wales was quickly followed by the English FA. A former FA chairman, David Bernstein, said in the media that he was disappointed Wales had beaten England to the punch as England’s is the “largest and most prestigious FA in the UK”.
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The FAI are a rather sclerotic organisation nowadays, but chief executive David Courell is a cautious figure who is at pains to do things by the book. Hence, it took a meeting of the FAI board on Monday to agree to send a letter to Zurich explaining it is withdrawing support for Infantino.
The FAI joins a burgeoning list of European nations to publicly state they do not support Infantino’s re-election, along with Wales, England, Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
Infantino was initially supposed to run unopposed for re-election next year, but he nonetheless requested letters of support from member associations before the World Cup. He reportedly received more than 200 letters, the FAI’s endorsement among them.
Infantino is now bleeding support but still clings to power. Uefa wants him gone, and says its member associations will continue to boycott Fifa competitions until he leaves. Uefa released another statement earlier this week, which was co-signed by the heads of the Asian and North American confederations, stressing that Infantino has lost its confidence.
In a Fifa presidential election, however, the confederations don’t have a vote. Each member nation goes to the ballot, and Infantino has cleaved off some significant support in Mexico and Qatar. His only hope of survival will be to make further inroads into splitting these votes, which is why the FAI’s statement has symbolic importance.
In a position where it has been forced to pick between Uefa and Fifa, the FAI has chosen Uefa. This is unsurprising, given it is steeped in the national character of wanting to appear as solid citizens of Europe. Uefa is the FAI’s main source of revenue, with the co-hosting of Euro 2028 the pot of gold on the horizon.
Standing squarely with Uefa is the only rationale by which the FAI’s looming paradox can be explained, for it is now boycotting a pair of games in autumn that are not the men’s Uefa Nations League games against Israel.
Instead, it is boycotting the women’s World Cup play-offs against Kazakhstan in October. In both scenarios, however, the FAI is toeing the Uefa line.
Explaining why it is playing the Israel games, the FAI wrote to its members to say that “maintaining a positive and constructive relationship with Uefa is essential” for the delivery of Euro 2028.
The FAI dearly hopes that the Fifa boycott can be averted before the play-offs against Kazakhstan, and so it is planning ahead as normal. The FAI announced Páirc Uí Chaoimh as the host venue of the play-off second leg. It would be a travesty if this administrative stand-off thwarted players’ chances of playing at a World Cup. Given the apparent intractability of both sides, it is becoming an increasing risk.
[ FAI withdraws support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s re-election bidOpens in new window ]
The FAI also seasoned its statement on Infantino with a bit of direct experience.
“Considering the governance challenges that the FAI has had to overcome in recent years, the association feels a particular obligation to advocate for and uphold best practice”, reads the final paragraph, a delightful final flourish of “take it from us”.
Those “governance challenges” brought the FAI to the brink of bankruptcy and forced some important reforms, most obviously the restructuring of the board to consist of six elected football directors and six external, independent directors.
Things are not perfect now, but they are certainly better than they were a decade ago, even if the price of such improvements is the kinds of delays we have seen in making clear where it stands regarding Infantino.
What must not be lost amid football’s civil war is that such externally-led overhauls are necessary at Fifa, regardless of who wins or loses. The FAI should take a lead in demanding structural reform.
Source: The Irish Times
