FIFA has devolved into a civil war. Early this week, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), CONCACAF, and UEFA released a joint open letter that included a scathing assessment of the current president without actually mentioning his name. Gianni Infantino has been under fire from the three confederations for attempting to impose a sale of equity in the World Cup to a private equity group led by Josh Kushner, the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Infantino engineered the deal behind closed doors, without consulting any of FIFA’s other leaders or the member associations.
The three confederations have accused Infantino of strong-arming some of the membership to supporting, or at least not rejecting outright, the deal. The AFC, CONCACAF, and UEFA argued he has deceived the members. “When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.” That’s a heavy charge and the line that has drawn the most attention.
Infantino withdrew the poorly conceived plan in disgrace and in his statement he refused to apologize for his error in judgment. The three confederations found this objectionable, as well. “It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. 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 AFC, CONCACAF, and UEFA further re-iterated their demand that all relevant communications be preserved, suggesting that legal action remains on the table. They went on to blast a recent meeting hosted by Infantino in Morocco that only included a select number of members of FIFA’s management committee rather than the full committee. They felt that the leadership should have been assembled at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. This “only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment.” UEFA has also not withdrawn their threat to boycott FIFA tournaments. That may be put to the test in about three weeks when Poland is supposed to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The open letter, available on the Internet, was signed by the three confederation presidents and general secretaries. Those three groups represent well over 130 countries. Even if there are a few who still support Infantino, such as Mexico and Qatar, together this is more than a majority of the FIFA membership necessary to elect a new leader. Dan Roan of the BBC reported that the three confederations have even had preliminary discussion about organizing their own competitions. This is an open revolt against Infantino’s leadership and the conduct of the FIFA executive. The first salvos have been fired. The first major engagements will be fought this fall with women in the lead as UEFA has their World Cup qualifying playoffs scheduled after the U-20 Women’s World Cup. It is going to be a tough battle for control of football on a global scale.
