The leaders of the European, North American, and Asian soccer bodies issued a scathing joint statement against FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Monday.
The “open letter to the football family” accuses Infantino of “deception” with his failed proposal for FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), his short-lived plan to commercialize the World Cup with outside investors.
Infantino is facing a leadership crisis ahead of his attempt to seek reelection as FIFA president in March. Continental bodies and individual national federations have called for him to step down in the wake of FFE’s demise, while others have hurried to support the man who is just one month removed from closing a $15 billion World Cup cycle.
The letter is signed by the president of each confederation—UEFA’s Aleksander Ceferin, CONCACAF’s Victor Montagliani, and the AFC’s Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa—as well as each continental body’s general secretary. The three confederation presidents also serve as FIFA vice presidents.
Much of the criticism is aimed at FIFA’s recent communications in the aftermath of FFE’s demise, accusing the governing body of “fearmongering.” On Aug. 5, after an emergency meeting of top officials in Morocco, FIFA released a statement apologizing for keeping the plan in secret and promising to conduct a review. On Aug. 8, FIFA put out another statement condemning the “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its President.” That statement came one day after The Telegraph reported that UEFA allegedly paid off a “lover” of Infantino’s while he was the organization’s general secretary.
