FIFA president Gianni Infantino apologized to members of the FIFA Council during Thursday’s session in Zurich, the first meeting of the main body’s decision-making body to announce Infantino’s and then the controversial decision to deprive him of the World Cup.
The specifics of Infantini’s defense have not been made public but FIFA said the Council was in the process of renewing the legal framework behind the FIFA Initiative (FFE), which was a subsidiary project that governed the commercial rights of men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups. FFE is valued at around $20 billion and a minority stake is sold to private investors seeking by Trive Eterno, the venture capitalist investment firm of Joshua Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump, son-in-law, Jared. The plan received criticism from the moment it was published in a report by the Times of London in July and was abandoned within a matter of days, although a legal battle over the plan is now underway in the US and matters continue to abound as Infantino seeks re-election.
Infantino fielded questions from Council members about the FFE on Thursday and asked them to submit more questions at a subsequent meeting, with the session ultimately drawing mixed reviews from those in the room. Ahmed Yahya, the president of the Mauritanian federation, said he believes Infantino is the “right president” and that many of FIFA’s member associations (MAs) feel the same way, but others are holding back on writing. The president of the German Football Association, Bernd Neuendorf, stated that he did not trust Infantino, when of England President Debbie Hewitt said Infantino was not present enough in his responses on Thursday.
“One of the things that was disappointing is that we didn’t have answers to everything that we specifically asked for, for example, receiving papers from the FFE,” Mortis said. And I asked, “Why not?” and we were asked to submit them in writing. I think that the man has to answer these questions and if he does not answer these questions now, he is not fit to be the president of FIFA and what he shared in the meeting. I have often asked for papers to be shared. I didn’t get it and I still haven’t received the request today.”
Infantino tried to address some of the concerns about the FFE, including agreeing that the group’s employee accounts could be reviewed by the government. FIFA has also proposed an increase in funds that usually distribute to 211 MAs, who now pocket $25 million in the next four-year cycle to get the green light. This is a response to criticism from UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC that FIFA should use existing funds to further business soccer projects around the world rather than the FFE, which was infamously killed as funds to increase facilities for MAs.
The scrutiny of the FIFA president does not end there. He continues to face criticism for FIFA’s handling of Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension at the World Cup, in which the governing body used a rarely-used rule to lift a one-match ban for the US men’s national team during the Round of 16 defeat in Belgium. Infantino could not undermine that allegation that political pressure had led to the decision, especially after Trump said he called Infantino asking him to review FIFA’s long-standing rules.
FIFA’s legal team will now review the disciplinary procedures based on the Balogun affair and has decided to present them to the Council at its next meeting in December. Detractors continue to incite the child as an example of the president’s failure in recent months, since the FiFA Peace Prize was inaugurated at Trump’s last year’s World Cup draw in Washington, DC.
The decisions regarding the suspension of the award and Balogun were taken outside of FIFA’s usual governance processes, so Council members continue to seek more information on how those decisions were passed.
“That is the reason why FFE did the way it did, the Balogun case, the Peace Prize,” Mortis said. “The answers to those questions, which I still don’t have answers to, will determine from my own opinion whether Gianni is the right candidate. This will be the point at which we can either say that any person who has been involved in the FFE can or cannot be trusted because until we see what happened it is very difficult to say that behavior is necessary or not to change.
Mortis believed there was “some breach” in the child’s apology but said the president did not offer enough information to change his position in re-election.
“Nothing has changed about my position,” he said. “I don’t have any information that makes me feel differently, other than we have a president who is apologetic.”
Infantino is seeking his fourth and final term in the March election, which will take place at the FIFA Congress in Rabat; Morocco. International from Switzerland Ramon Vega is his only opponent so far, although they have prospective candidates until November 18 to show their interest.