Gianni Infantino, who was first elected Fifa president in 2016, has received a public show of support from the organisation’s management board following a turbulent week dominated by controversy over a private investment proposal. In a statement released after Wednesday’s meeting, secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and the management board “reaffirmed their full support” for Infantino as president.
The meeting centred on the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, through which Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a plan for private investment in its tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups, through a new FFE subsidiary. Fifa acknowledged that “mistakes” were made, saying it was “not the intention” for the Fifa council and member associations to “feel excluded from the process” and that “the process should have been handled differently”. The governing body also acknowledged that “errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media”, with the Times breaking the story on 28 July.
Despite the reconciliatory tone, Infantino and Grafstrom signed a letter — seen by the BBC — addressed to Fifa’s vice-presidents, council and 211 member associations in which they “sincerely apologise” for their errors and “commit to them not happening again”. The pair were subsequently pictured together attending a Women’s Africa Cup of Nations match in Rabat. Fifa’s statement also warned that the organisation “will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process and will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard its name and reputation”.
The support from Fifa executives came against a backdrop of sharp criticism from multiple directions. Grafstrom himself had written in an internal memo to Fifa staff on Tuesday that the situation was “a sad and reproachable series of events”. Uefa said at the weekend it had lost confidence in Infantino, branding the FFE proposal a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country co-hosted the recent World Cup with the United States and Mexico, also said he no longer had confidence in Infantino.
Fifa separately denied a Times report that Infantino had promised Morocco it would host the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for its support, calling the claim “false and misleading”. The governing body said a decision on where to hold the final — with the tournament also hosted by Spain and Portugal — would be made “in due course”.
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
