FIFA president Gianni Infantino gave “no satisfactory answers” when questioned on Thursday during a meeting to discuss his attempts to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, senior members of football’s global governing body said.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino gave “no satisfactory answers” when questioned on Thursday during a meeting to discuss his attempts to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, senior members of football’s global governing body said. However, he did apologise for the failed project. “We asked a great many critical questions, but there were no satisfactory answers from my point of view,” said Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German Football Association (DFB) and a member of the FIFA Council.Neuendorf was speaking after the Council met behind closed doors at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, where Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal was one of the main items on the agenda.
Infantino has been under intense pressure since announcing in late July that he wanted to open FIFA’s premium competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors.
That plan was ultimately abandoned amid widespread criticism, with opposition led by European governing body UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF, which oversees football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
“I think we had the opportunity to say what we felt, and we spoke a lot about the issues,” Debbie Hewitt, chair of the English Football Association and a FIFA vice-president, told reporters, before adding that Infantino had apologised.
“I think it is fair to say Gianni apologised at the beginning for what had happened, and he said that with some contrition. Then there were no holds barred in terms of what we felt about what happened.”
Hewitt and Neuendorf are among the 36 members of the FIFA Council, along with Infantino.
Infantino has headed FIFA since 2016 and is running for re-election next March, despite calls for him to step down in the wake of the FFE proposal.
At present, no heavyweight candidate has emerged to challenge him.
“We were asked to submit our questions” in relation to the proposal, which was not put before the FIFA Council prior to the July announcement, Hewitt said.
“One of the disappointing things was that we didn’t get answers. We didn’t get answers to anything we had specifically requested, for example getting the papers from FFE, and so we asked the question why and why not.”
‘Nothing Has Shifted’
Many leading European national associations have withdrawn their support for Infantino in the upcoming election due to the backlash over the FFE proposal and other controversies, including his relationship with US President Donald Trump.
Among the issues cited were Infantino’s decision to create a FIFA Peace Prize and award it to Trump at last December’s World Cup draw, as well as the decision to overturn the suspension of United States striker Folarin Balogun following a red card at the World Cup after Trump reportedly intervened directly by contacting Infantino.
“I speak for myself as a Council member — from my position, nothing has shifted,” Hewitt added.
“I have no new information that makes me feel any differently from how I felt when I went in, other than we do have a FIFA president who is apologetic about what has happened, and secondly, a promise again that we will get the information that we have requested.”