- Storm Follows Collapse of $4.2bn Plan to Sell World Cup Commercial Rights
FIFA has thrown its weight behind embattled president Gianni Infantino, warning of what it called a “concerted and ongoing effort” to bring him down — and making clear that anyone hoping to unseat him must go through the governing body’s statutes and democratic channels, not the back door.
The defence comes in the thick of a bruising fight over Infantino’s leadership, one triggered by the collapse of his plan to raise around $4.2 billion by selling off a slice of the commercial rights to the World Cup and other tournaments.
That proposal blew up across world football. It drew fire from UEFA, from national associations, even from senior figures inside FIFA itself. It hardened into open calls for Infantino to go, and forced a crisis meeting in Morocco this week — where FIFA’s leadership closed ranks and restated its backing for the president.
Notably, FIFA named no one. It did not say who it believed was working against Infantino, nor did it point to the reports or allegations it had in mind.
The statement followed reporting by The Daily Telegraph on payments UEFA made to a former employee during Infantino’s years as the European body’s general secretary — claims he has denied and FIFA has dismissed as baseless.
The message from Zurich was sharp. “Those who do not have the support of FIFA’s Member Associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through FIFA’s established democratic processes,” FIFA said.
Recent coverage, it argued, had carried “unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims” about the organisation and its president — and it promised to fight any inaccurate or misleading report “directly and vigorously.”
It went further, drawing a line over any attempt to force a change of leadership outside its own rulebook. FIFA said it would not support, facilitate or tolerate any process around the election of its president that broke its statutes, democratic procedures and governance framework.
“The FIFA president was democratically elected by FIFA’s member associations and continues to serve with their mandate,” it said.
Still, the body admitted it had got things wrong. After Wednesday’s crisis meeting in Morocco, FIFA apologised to its 211 member associations for how the commercial proposal had been handled, even as its leadership repeated its full support for Infantino.
The fallout has cast a shadow over his bid for a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March — though so far, no clear challenger has come forward.
The opposition is real, though, and it is growing. UEFA has said it no longer has confidence in Infantino, and on Friday the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, Lise Klaveness, called on him to resign, saying he no longer had the institutional trust needed to run FIFA.
Against that, Infantino can still count heads — and the numbers are on his side. The Confederation of African Football backed him unanimously on Thursday, while South America’s CONMEBOL shut the door on any move to remove him that did not go before a vote of the full FIFA membership.
Mexico’s football federation joined in too, standing by Infantino even after its own regional confederation, CONCACAF, demanded a “comprehensive reckoning” with his presidency.
“The FMF will neither recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework,” the Mexican federation said.
For all the noise coming out of Europe, Infantino heads towards March with the ledger still tipped his way — a president wounded but far from finished, and a global game split down the middle over whether he should stay.
