Gianni Infantino is facing pressure from inside Fifa’s own council, where members intend to demand that the abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the Folarin Balogun affair are included in the external review of the governing body’s governance that he has proposed.
In a letter sent to all 211 of Fifa’s member associations on Monday, the Fifa president said he would ask the council to commission a review of “Fifa’s current governance framework for major strategic initiatives” at its next meeting, to be held in Zurich on 15 October. He faces an internal battle over the review’s terms of reference.
The Football Association’s chair, Debbie Hewitt, wrote to Infantino last week demanding the release of all documents relating to the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme that was abandoned last month, as well as the background to Fifa’s decision to lift Balogun’s suspension during the World Cup. Her request has the support of many fellow council members.
One council member said that without a retrospective analysis of FFE and Balogun any governance review would lack credibility. Another suggested that Infantino was seeking to avoid personal scrutiny by offering to examine Fifa’s governance structures looking forward rather than past controversies.
The Balogun affair centres on the lifting of the US striker’s suspension from the World Cup last-32 tie against Belgium, which followed a phone call to Infantino from Donald Trump. In the immediate aftermath, a group of council members attempted to call an extraordinary general meeting but could not muster the 19 votes required.
Fifa’s council is made up of 28 representatives of the six confederations, eight vice-presidents, Infantino and Fifa’s secretary general, Mattias Grafström. The European, Asian and North and Central American and Caribbean confederations campaigning against Infantino hold 21 of the 38 council seats between them, though that includes delegates from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, who have issued public statements of support for the president.
The German football federation president, Bernd Neuendorf, set out the European position this week by describing Infantino’s offer of a governance review as cynical electioneering, adding that any vote on the matter at council is likely to be tight. “I regard Gianni Infantino’s letter as a transparent ploy to secure his re-election next year,” Neuendorf said. “Fundamentally, Fifa now seems to have recognised that changes are essential. However, Gianni Infantino is definitely not the right person to lead a reform process.”
Infantino said on Wednesday that his letter had been well received. He was speaking while attending the opening night of the Arabian Gulf Cup in Jeddah, from where he will fly to New York for meetings at the United Nations general assembly. “I am looking forward to receiving feedback from everyone, following my letter,” he said. “I have received positive messages about it from different parts of the world, and it is important that we keep listening to each other, here in Saudi Arabia, in any one of Fifa’s 211 member associations. We have a council meeting next month, so we will continue to have dialogue on these important matters. There must be a culture of dialogue, of listening to each other and respecting each other. This is not about generating positive headlines, it is about doing what is right for the game. And I have never been more determined and committed in doing that. Fifa is always engaged. I am always engaged and want to hear how we can continue to grow football for the benefit of everybody, everywhere.”