Infantino Blasted for ‘Deception’ by FIFA Vice Presidents

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 Čeferin, 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.

The continental leaders said Monday that FIFA acknowledged its faults in the process but not in the proposal itself. “There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgement – not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve,” the joint letter reads.

Also in their letter, the confederations leaders blasted the Morocco meeting, citing that only one elected official had been invited to the meeting held far from FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, and saying the review should be done by a third party, not FIFA.

“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him,” the joint letter says.

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.

Hours after the letter, U.S. Soccer put out a statement saying it stands with other CONCACAF soccer bodies—excluding Mexico—in “calling for meaningful change that strengthens FIFA’s governance, transparency and accountability.” Last week, U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson dodged questions about whether the federation would back Infantino, saying the federation’s board would discuss the topic at its upcoming meeting in September.

UEFA has been the most outspoken against both FFE and Infantino, and it is still moving forward with a boycott of all FIFA events. CONCACAF has been a close second, saying after FFE’s failure: “A comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative.” While the AFC previously joined UEFA and CONCACAF in “expressing serious concerns” about FFE, Monday’s letter is the Asian confederation’s biggest attack yet on Infantino’s leadership.

Montagliani’s name has arisen as the likeliest contender to oppose Infantino in FIFA’s election next spring, though he has not announced his intention to run. The Canadian has led CONCACAF since 2016.

The confederation leaders aren’t necessarily speaking on behalf of all of their member associations. Several national soccer federations within the AFC and CONCACAF have already reaffirmed their support of Infantino, including Mexico, Lebanon, Kuwait, the UAE, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.

But the three confederations represent a large percentage of FIFA’s membership. Of FIFA’s 211 member associations, 55 are part of UEFA, 35 are in CONCACAF, and 46 belong to the AFC.

The remaining three confederations representing Africa, South America, and Oceania have 54, 10, and 11 member associations in FIFA, respectively. In recent days, CAF said it unanimously supports Infantino, while CONMEBOL said it won’t support an effort to quickly push him out.