Gianni Infantino receives ‘full support’ from FIFA leadership after crisis meeting
Gianni Infantino has received “full support” from FIFA’s senior leadership staff to continue in his role as president following a crisis meeting in Morocco on Wednesday.
The meeting took place after Infantino was forced to scrap his proposal to sell off stakes in FIFA competitions to private investment.
An overwhelming global backlash to Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) has put his role as president in a fragile position, but a FIFA statement on Wednesday night said the 56-year-old retained the “full support” of the organisation’s secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and members of its management board.
Infantino posted on his Instagram account that those in attendance had “fully upheld support” for his and Grafstrom’s positions.
The FIFA president added, “We also agreed that FIFA will not tolerate any attacks on its integrity and will take all necessary measures to defend its reputation.”
(Instagram/@gianni_infantino)
Grafstrom, who was not aware of Infantino’s FFE proposal, voiced his criticism of the plan this week. In a letter to staff on Monday morning, seen by The Athletic, the secretary general said “individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go” and described it as a “sad and reproachable series of events”.
Wednesday’s meeting in Rabat got underway late in the morning and was attended by FIFA’s management board.
Along with Grafstrom, this included FIFA’s chief of member associations Elkhan Mammadov, chief legal officer Emilio Garcia Silvero, chief financial officer Thomas Peyer, chief of staff Daniel O’Toole, media director Bryan Swanson and HR chief Kimberly Morris.
The meeting lasted most of the day before a delegation, led by Infantino and Grafstrom, attended Zambia’s 2-1 win against Malawi in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. Infantino and Grafstrom were seen smiling and sitting together at the Al Medina Stadium in Barat.
Kevin Lamour, FIFA’s chief operating officer, who told the Associated Press last week that Infantino had “deceived” staff at the governing body with his failed FFE proposal, was not in Morocco for the meeting.
FIFA said “mistakes made (regarding FFE) were acknowledged” in 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,” the governing body said. “It was further acknowledged that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to the media.”
It added that an “apology had been made separately to the FIFA council and the 211 FIFA member associations”, with a “commitment to ensure they do not happen again”.
FIFA added: “A review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the FIFA council at its next scheduled meeting.”
What opposition does Infantino face?
The pressure has mounts on Infantino in recent days.
Earlier on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — who appeared alongside Infantino multiple times during this summer’s World Cup, which his nation co-hosted — said Infantino committed a “fatal” governance failure over his FFE plans.
“It should be fatal,” Carney said. “Certainly I don’t have confidence in Mr. Infantino.”
The president of the Jordanian Football Association, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, a former FIFA presidential candidate, ramped up the external heat on Tuesday by accusing world football’s governing body of “blackmail” in a searing statement posted on social media.
“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values,” he wrote. “We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”
European football’s governing body UEFA has called for Infantino to go, saying it has lost confidence in his leadership, while the English Football Association is set to follow the Football Association of Wales and withdraw its letter of support for Infantino’s re-election next year.
The Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, the confederation that hosted this summer’s World Cup, are yet to go as far as their European counterparts in specifically calling for change at the top, but both are seeking urgent answers from Infantino.
Any opposition to Infantino’s position as president has until November 18 to put up at least one rival candidate to take on the incumbent, for the next presidential election in March.