FIFA issues further defence of Infantino alongside an attempt to gag world’s media

August 10 – FIFA has hit back at what it is calling a “concerted effort” to undermine its president Gianni Infantino, who is under increasing pressure to resign over his aborted plans to privatise the World Cup and FIFA’s major events. 

The world governing body lashed out at UEFA and the media in a thinly veiled late-night statement on Saturday.

“It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its president,” said FIFA.

“Those who do not have the support of FIFA’s member associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through FIFA’s established democratic processes.

“Recent reporting has included unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims concerning FIFA and its president. Speculation and insinuation should not be presented as fact, and repetition does not make an allegation true.”

The Daily Telegraph reported that UEFA had paid a “departure payment” to a woman who allegedly had an affair with Infantino when he served as secretary general of the European governing body.

Last week, UEFA also confirmed that the boycott of the World Cup and all FIFA competitions still applies. 

Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have also rejected FIFA’s plans to establish a private equity funded commercial entity to sell its World Cup income streams, but Infantino has gained support in Africa and South America for his presidency despite this.

Following a crisis meeting in Morocco, FIFA closed ranks with Infantino and his right-hand man, secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, backing each other. In a letter to the FIFA Council and its 211 member associations, they admitted mistakes were made, but they failed to take to give the assertion or pathway that the proposal would not return in a different guise (this was the second time Infantino has tried to move control of all commercial sales outside the organisation to a separate privately owned entity).

FIFA said in its second statement: “Change inevitably challenges established interests, but disagreement with that change cannot justify efforts to undermine the democratic mandate of FIFA’s president or the institution he was elected to lead,” FIFA added in its statement Saturday.

It is a peculiar statement in that the change only challenges the established interests of FIFA’s and it has been pretty much universally agreed that the sell-off proposal is not in membership associations’ interests with FIFA’s reserves at their current levels and coming off the back of a World Cup that generated $15 billion+ in revenue.

The point is that the challenge to Infantino is precisely because he has abused his democratic mandate to lead FIFA as he has increasingly managed the global sports body without any form of democracy or consultation on major issues that directly affect its members.

“FIFA welcomes legitimate scrutiny. But scrutiny is not a licence to distort facts, amplify unsubstantiated allegations or manufacture distractions designed to undermine progress. Where reporting is inaccurate or misleading, FIFA will challenge it directly and vigorously.”

This is not the first threat in the last week that FIFA has issued to global media in a bid to close down their research, analysis and reporting. Such is the global outrage it is only likely to poke the media bear harder.

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