By Nick Mulvenney and Rohith Nair
Aug 4 (Reuters) – The crisis triggered by FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s abandoned proposal to sell off a stake in the World Cup deepened on Tuesday with influential executives publicly distancing themselves from the project while scrambling to contain the damage.
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After three days of unprecedented civil war in the world of soccer administration last week, Infantino backed away from his plan to raise $4.2 billion from a new commercial rights body late on Friday night.
The 56-year-old apologised for how the proposal, which would have brought private investment into the World Cup for the first time, had divided the game, but his once unassailable bastion of power at the top of the global governing body was shattered.
FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom sent an internal message to staff lamenting the “sad and reproachable series of events” that led to the project being “permanently abandoned”, two sources said.
“We have all been thrown into the middle of a turmoil, which is difficult to comprehend and accept,” Grafstrom wrote in the letter without mentioning Infantino by name.
“But, as Secretary General, I urge you to remain focused on what has always united us: serving football and serving our 211 Member Associations, hand in hand with all relevant stakeholders and in full compliance with the FIFA Statutes and FIFA Regulations.
“Individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go. The institution, its mission and its responsibility towards world football continue, and that is why we should always keep our professionalism, sense of perspective and composure.”
Arsene Wenger, the Chief of Global Football Development at FIFA and technical adviser to soccer’s rule-making body IFAB, said he was not involved in the proposal and only learned about it through media reports.
“The decision to withdraw the project was absolutely necessary and beyond question, because I firmly believe in an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity,” Wenger said in a statement.
FORCE INFANTINO OUT OF OFFICE
One media report suggested three regional confederations had united to try to force Infantino out of office.
Five European national associations, including England’s FA, have formally withdrawn their backing for his re-election at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March, while Denmark’s said it was never going to vote for him in any case.
The federations of Morocco, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon and Sri Lanka have publicly declared their continued support for the Swiss-Italian, who has run FIFA since 2016 and wants to stay on until 2031.
Infantino has also attempted to boost his own image by amplifying their statements on Instagram while FIFA dismissed as “pure fiction” a report that he had sought support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to stay in power.
The numbers with firm public positions are small — 211 national federations will vote at Congress — but blindsiding major stakeholders in the game with his proposal has clearly lost Infantino allies among the regional confederations.
Powerful European confederation UEFA and CONCACAF, which runs the game in North and Central America and the Caribbean, issued strongly worded statements on Saturday saying they had lost confidence in his leadership.
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‘TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE’
The usually loyal Asian confederation (AFC) did not go so far in its criticism but called for institutional reform at FIFA after declaring the lack of consultation over the plan “totally unacceptable”.
According to a report in the Times of London on Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC are determined to force Infantino out of office by paralysing FIFA and even starting up their own competitions if he refuses to go.
CONCACAF, the AFC and FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. UEFA said it had no comment.
UEFA has confirmed that it has sent a “document preservation letter” to FIFA for all material related to Infantino’s plan, although it is still mulling whether to start legal proceedings over it.
Leading African football administrators have, however, sent messages of support to Infantino as the embattled president looks to the continent’s 54 members for backing in a bid to keep his job. CAF has not yet taken a stance.
INFANTINO POWER BASE PUT TO TEST
Infantino’s immediate concern will be to avoid the calling of an Extraordinary Congress, which would be triggered if 43 or more FIFA member associations make a formal written request for one.
Beyond that, he will have seven months to rebuild damaged relationships with his supporters and shore up his position against challengers.
Infantino, like his two immediate predecessors as president, Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter, built his power base outside of Europe, where less wealthy associations rely on FIFA funds.
It was at those associations that his controversial proposal was pitched, with promises of a dividend of $20 million to $40 million at the start of next year for each national body which backed the scheme.
Infantino’s opponents will need to find a candidate before the November 18 deadline for nominations for the FIFA election who can speak to those interests as well as the more prosperous associations in the traditional heartlands of the game.
Blatter put forward Lise Klaveness, the outspoken head of Norway’s football federation, as a potential candidate. Klaveness said her organisation had not voted for Infantino in the last election and has criticised the move to bring in external investors.
“Lise Klaveness deserves the utmost respect. She was the only one who always took a clear stand and did not go along with the mainstream,” Blatter wrote on X. “And at FIFA, the time is right for a woman to take the lead.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Rohith Nair, Suramya Kaushik and Shrivathsa Sridhar, editing by Peter Rutherford and Ed Osmond)
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