September 23 – The German and Dutch football associations have rebuked FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s latest letter, offering a governance review.
A FIFA Council member and president of the German FA (DFB), Bernd Neuendorf called Infantino’s missive as a “transparent manoeuvre” to ensure his reelection. Neuendorf told German media: “Basically, FIFA now also seems to have recognised that changes are essential. However, Gianni Infantino is definitely not the right person to moderate a reform process. He’s wasted all credibility.”
“I think Gianni Infantino’s letter is a transparent manoeuver to secure his re-election next year.”
The Dutch FA (KNVB) echoed Neuendorf’s sentiment, arguing that FIFA requires new leadership. In a statement, the KNVB wrote: “For us, trust has not yet been restored by this. The proposed actions seem partly in line with our call for reforms within FIFA. Time will tell if that is indeed the case. At the same time, the proposals cannot be viewed in isolation from the (public) pressure, and they would not have come about without the current dynamic. We advocate for fundamental reforms and new leadership at FIFA.”
UEFA have sought to remove Infantino from his role after his plans to sell off the World Cup were leaked. The FIFA president abandoned the plans and almost apologised in a letter following a major backlash from FIFA’s federations and his own staff, but has still refused to resign. On Monday, in his latest letter to the FIFA Council and 211 member associations, Infantino signalled that he’d be open to discussing a governance review.
After FIFAGate in 2015, the Italian-Swiss football official formed a part of a committee to draft reforms at the world federation, but instead, following his election, he became an executive president, concentrating and consolidating power, and ignoring a vast bulk of the reforms he had been key in implementing, in particular term limits for FIFA’s presidency and the selection of an independent ethics judiciary.
Next year, FIFA will stage elections at its annual congress in Rabat, Morocco. Challengers to his presidency have until 18 November to confirm their candidacy.
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