FOOTBALL – FIFA president Gianni Infantino held a crisis meeting with senior officials of world soccer’s governing body in Morocco yesterday as he sought to shore up support following the collapse of his proposal to sell off commercial rights linked to the World Cup.
Vehicles believed to be carrying Infantino and Fifa Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom were seen leaving Fifa’s Africa office in Sale after the meeting, which came amid mounting criticism of Infantino’s leadership ahead of next year’s presidential election in the governing body.
The gathering, attended by senior Fifa executives at its Africa office across the Bou Regreg river from Rabat, followed last week’s withdrawal of a proposal to sell a 20 per cent stake in a new commercial rights entity to private investors in a deal that would have raised about $4.2 billion for football development.
The proposal, which also drew scrutiny because of the involvement of a company with family links to US President Donald Trump, prompted fierce criticism from European soccer’s governing body Uefa and other stakeholders, who accused Fifa of poor governance and a lack of consultation.
Infantino has been the subject of a torrent of criticism since he floated the idea of the new commercial rights body to Fifa’s 211 member associations last week.
His backdown last Friday has done little to assuage those critics, most notably Uefa, which accused him of selling the soul of the game and has said it no longer has confidence in his leadership.
That has cast a shadow over Infantino’s re-election for a fourth term at the Fifa Congress in Morocco in March, which had looked like a foregone conclusion two months ago.
A handful of European federations have withdrawn their backing for the Swiss Italian, but perhaps more damaging are the messages coming from Infantino’s Fifa colleagues.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also questioned Infantino’s leadership yesterday, saying he has lost confidence in the Fifa president after learning senior advisers had not been consulted on the abandoned proposal.
“I don’t have confidence in Mr. Infantino,” Carney told reporters, adding that failing to inform senior executives and fellow board members of such a significant proposal “should be fatal” for any leader.
Grafstrom sent an internal memo to staff lamenting the “sad and reproachable series of events” that led to the project being “permanently abandoned”.