FIFA on Wednesday apologized to its members for mistakes made over its abandoned proposal to sell commercial rights to the World Cup as the body’s leadership reaffirmed its support for president Gianni Infantino after a crisis meeting in Morocco.
The proposal to sell a 20 percent stake in a new commercial rights entity to private investors in a deal that would have raised about US$4.2 billion provoked a fierce backlash and was withdrawn on Friday last week. Infantino bore the brunt of the criticism, including some from inside FIFA, which raised questions over his re-election as president in March next year.
“Following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the FIFA secretary-general and members of the FIFA management board in attendance reaffirmed their full support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino,” the statement said.
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FIFA secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom sent an internal memo to staff this week lamenting the “sad and reproachable series of events” that led to the project being “permanently abandoned,” two sources said.
Grafstrom’s letter, which did not mention Infantino by name, said that “individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go,” but FIFA’s work would continue.
His words echoed those of FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, who last week said that staff had been “deceived” over the plan, which he described as the project of one person.
FIFA statement said that Infantino, president since 2016, was “the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations.”
FIFA said a separate letter had been sent to FIFA Council members and member associations apologizing for the errors and promising a review.
“It was agreed that it was not the intention for the FIFA Council and FIFA member associations to feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently,” the statement added.
With the proposal withdrawn, FIFA said it would “no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process.”
The proposal, which also drew scrutiny because of the involvement of a company with family links to US President Donald Trump, prompted fierce criticism from European soccer’s governing body UEFA and other stakeholders.
Infantino’s backdown last week did little to assuage those critics and a handful of European federations have withdrawn their backing for the 56-year-old Swiss Italian.
However, Infantino still has plenty of allies, particularly in parts of the world where impoverished soccer associations rely on FIFA’s largesse to operate.
One of the first associations to back Infantino after his proposal was withdrawn was Morocco, which is to cohost the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain and is hoping to stage the final.
A FIFA spokesperson dismissed a report that Infantino had made promises over the staging of the title-deciding contest in exchange for support.
“It is false and misleading to claim the FIFA president has made any promise in relation to hosting the FIFA World Cup 2030 final,” they said.
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