“This comes after FIFA, world football’s governing body, released a statement on Saturday that hit out at what it described as a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” Infantino and the organisation. The failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, which has heaped immense pressure on Infantino, would have seen FIFA make stakes in its commercial and event operations, including the World Cups and Club World Cups, available for private investment. Following a crisis meeting of select members of FIFA’s management in Morocco on Wednesday, Infantino, who apologised with Mattias Grafstrom, FIFA’s secretary general, for the FFE proposal, received the “full support” from his senior leadership team. The open letter from UEFA, Concacaf and AFC read: ‘This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the FIFA Management Committee — not the full Committee — were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment. ‘It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him. There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness. These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.’ Last week, UEFA doubled down on its threat of European member associations boycotting future men’s and women’s World Cups. … Sources with knowledge of the confederations’ thinking, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, admit there is an acknowledgement that at some point talks may have to be had on developing possible new competitions but the hope is they will not be necessary and Infantino will instead step down. Following the meeting in Morocco, FIFA added that ‘a review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the FIFA council at its next scheduled meeting’. However, UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC have made clear that they do trust FIFA to oversee this review, and have instead called for it to be carried out by an independent party. …”
NYT/ATH

“Among the statements of support for the FIFA president Gianni Infantino, there is competition to be the most craven. In a congested field, the Argentinian Football Association, which is very keen on an expansion to a 64-team World Cup in 2030, may have just nosed ahead. ‘We address you, dear President,’ it wrote in a public statement issued on Thursday, ‘and through you to the FIFA board, to express our support for the management carried out during the last 10 years, which had as its main axes the development of football throughout the world and the institutional solidity based on a clear, stable and transparent governance model. These pledges have now come from nations in Africa, Asia and both Central and South America, and are similar enough in tone and structure to have come from a template. They have all addressed Infantino with the same reverence, loudly applauded him for abandoning his private-equity scheme, which would have seen a portion of FIFA’s business sold to external investors, and then praised him for a style of leadership — clear, stable, transparent — that he stands accused of not showing. Infantino is being praised for having to abandon a plan that was conceived in the dark, but then exposed against his will by the media. It might be one of the only times in recent history that someone has drawn a standing ovation for being forced into an embarrassing U-turn. Strange? No, this is football, where cognitive dissonance is a survival skill. These are less gestures of support, more sacred oaths at the feet of a monarch. The lack of dissent is startling. …”
NYT/ATH (Video)
Telegraph – Exclusive: Gianni Infantino’s ‘lover’ was paid off by Uefa
***NYT/ATH: FIFA says there is ‘concerted and ongoing effort’ to oust Gianni Infantino as president***

Mr Infantino in Colombia on Friday with the governor of Valle del Cauca, Dilian Francisca Toro, and the president of Colombia’s Football, Federation Ramon Jesurun

UEFA’s initial boycott was in response to FIFA’s plans to sell stakes in its commercial and event operations, including the World Cups?
“UEFA has doubled down on its threat of European member associations boycotting future men’s and women’s World Cups. This comes after Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, received “full support” from the senior leadership in attendance at a crisis meeting in Morocco on Wednesday. UEFA’s initial threat to boycott future FIFA tournaments last week was in response to Infantino’s failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal that would have seen FIFA make stakes in world soccer’s commercial and event operations, including the World Cups and Club World Cups, available for private investment. …”
NYT/ATH

“Gianni Infantino held talks about rebranding the ill-fated European breakaway competition the ‘Fifa Super League’, with negotiations going as far as the term sheet for an agreement that would have changed the face of European football. The term sheet, whose full contents can be revealed for the first time, is dated October 2020 and proposes renaming any new competition under Fifa’s branding. It outlines the extent to which Infantino’s administration were implicated in a scheme that caused widespread revulsion among fans and excluded clubs in April 2021. It also reveals that Fifa was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to cut back the number of international windows and outlines how global football’s governing body would have been given special governance and political rights with a ‘golden share’. In a week when football is reeling from the fallout after Infantino scrapped his plan to sell chunks of the World Cup to private investors, the document shows Fifa’s leadership was deeply involved in another attempt to put the sport’s major competitions under corporate control. …”
Guardian
BBC: Infantino sorry for errors but stays Fifa president
YouTube: UEFA criticises FIFA’s ‘secret schemes from faceless individuals’, Fifa scraps controversial plan after global outrage | BBC News
NYT/ATH:***Gianni Infantino fights on as FIFA president after leadership backing. So, what now?***

“The pressure is growing on the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, with many countries withdrawing their support following the bungled World Cup sell-off. However, how key is Infantino’s relationship with each confederation and is it likely that an election contest will actually happen? We look at the key considerations, confederation by confederation. 1) How does each confederation view Infantino’s re-election? Uefa (Europe) has firmly led the moves under way to achieve Infantino’s removal. The threat last week to boycott all Fifa competitions if the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme was not scrapped contributed hugely to its failure. In a scathing statement on Saturday, Uefa said the current Fifa leadership had “not only lost Uefa’s confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family”, and pledged to push for change. Some Uefa member associations, including the English and Welsh FAs, have withdrawn their letters of support for Infantino’s re‑election and efforts are continuing to ensure others follow suit in a bid to weaken his position irretrievably. … Reports of AFC (Asia) support for Uefa are premature; the confederation is divided. The AFC has spoken out, strongly in relative terms compared to its usual pronouncements, against the proposed World Cup deal and has called for reform of Fifa. The AFC has been a staunch supporter in the past but if it looks as if Infantino is in trouble the AFC leadership, which was genuinely angry at how the proposal was made (probably more so than the actual details of the deal), could switch sides, which would probably confirm Infantino’s downfall if Uefa and Concacaf oppose but it is not a foregone conclusion – some in Asia are not convinced that Uefa has the numbers. The big problem is that, while the AFC leadership may want Infantino out, most individual Asian federations do not want him to be replaced. The AFC president, Sheikh Salman, has ambitions of his own and has been historically successful at preserving AFC unity but this will be tricky especially as west Asian nations such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia support Infantino and are influential in Asia. …”
***Guardian***
NYT/ATH: President of Jordanian FA accuses FIFA of ‘blackmail’ over Infantino reelection
NYT/ATH: How do FIFA presidential elections work? Who can challenge Gianni Infantino? (Video)
Guardian: Concacaf countries considering withdrawing support for under-fire Gianni Infantino (Video)
YouTube: Fifa scraps controversial plan after global outrage | BBC News

Lise Klaveness (left) and Laura McAllister were instrumental in stopping Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in FIFA competitions
“The president, Aleksander Ceferin, speaks first. That’s the way in a crisis. Then the natural order: the treasurer and vice president, Sandor Csanyi; English Football Association CEO Mark Bullingham. Male European football executives lined up on the Zoom screen, queueing up to save our world.  But then this emergency meeting of UEFA, European football’s governing body, convened in response to FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in its major competitions, takes a twist. Laura McAllister, another vice president and one of two women on the governing body’s 21-member executive committee, takes the microphone. She demands real action: a full boycott of FIFA competitions. … But let’s be honest, that kind of thinking is ridiculous. …”
NYT/ATH

“There is no time to dance around the subject. Gianni Infantino must stand down as Fifa president or otherwise be legally removed. No fresh chances can be made available for an official who has demolished trust in football’s integrity and governance, trashing all remaining credibility of the body that oversees the world’s most-cherished sport. Infantino was forced into a humiliating climbdown on Saturday morning when he accepted the failure of his plan to sell off portions of the World Cup to private investment. He resolved to resume dialogue about football’s growth ‘in the spirit of shared interest in our game’. But such a naked attempt to save his own skin cannot hold. Every day Infantino remains in power is a fresh stain on an institution whose reputation is on the floor. …”
Guardian