July 31 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his FIFA administration are becoming increasingly isolated by their members with the announcement by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) this morning that it “stands in solidarity with UEFA and Concacaf”.
In a hard-hitting rebuke of the proposed sell-off of FIFA’s flagship competition rights and organisation to a new business entity – FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) – the AFC said: “The fact that the situation has reached the point where the real possibility of a FIFA World Cup boycott has entered public discourse should concern everyone who cares about the future of our game. Football should never have been placed in such a position.”
Yesterday (Thursday) AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa wrote to his member associations asking them “to await the outcome of consultations (with FIFA) and the completion of the necessary review processes before reaching any position regarding the proposal.”
It is understood from AFC sources that not a single member had signed up to Infantino’s plan, and that there was widespread anger throughout the member associations over how the proposal was suddenly sprung on them and the expectation that they would tow the line and take the money unquestioningly.
AFC member distrust in FIFA has grown in both its eastern and western regions as Infantino has cosied up to US president Donald Trump and his discriminatory MAGA agenda. Trump is directly linked to the lead private equity investor, Thrive Capital, that is headed by Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and is earmarked to take up the first 20% allocation of shares in FFE.
Just 24 hours after Salman’s letter to his member associations, the AFC said it noted FIFA’s latest clarification on the proposal, but that “the central concerns surrounding governance, institutional process and meaningful consultation remain unanswered.”
“A proposal of such significance, with the potential to affect the commercial, sporting and strategic future of world football, must not emerge through processes that leave Confederations, Member Associations (MAs) and even FIFA’s own governing bodies, including the FIFA Council, feeling sidelined. The primary objective for world football must be to ensure that decisions of such magnitude are being developed through processes that are anchored on transparency and command the confidence of the football community,” said the AFC statement.
“This is not the first occasion where major stakeholders have been confronted with significant initiatives after the direction of travel appears to have already been determined.”
With the AFC aligning with Concacaf and UEFA over the rejection of Infantino’s proposal, and assuming that they all follow their confederation’s line (and when it comes to FIFA votes they generally do), there are now 136 members who would vote against FFE. There are understood by Insideworldfootball to be at least 20 African member associations who would join them.
There are 211 voting members of FIFA, with Congress votes requiring a simple majority.
FFE looks dead in the water and the president’s life raft suddenly looks to have sprung a major and irreparable leak ahead of the presidential election next March. Currently Infantino is the only candidate standing, but he still has to make it the election and March is suddenly looking an uncomfortably long way off for him, no matter how many letters of support he believes he has.
“The FIFA World Cup, and the game itself, belong to the entire global football family,” the AFC statement concluded. “Their future must always be shaped collectively, through institutions that reflect the voices of all Confederations and MAs.”
Taxi for Mr Infantino? Looks like the jet might be out of commission.
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