September 22: Gianni Infantino has written to the FIFA Council and 211 football associations to say he is open to an independent governance review.
On Monday, the incumbent soccer boss wrote to FIFA’s top decision-making body and its electorate to counter the huge backlash against his aborted plans to sell the World Cup, indicating he would consider reforms.
“First, I will ask the Council if it wants to commission an independent external review of FIFA’s current governance framework for important strategic initiatives and recommend potential improvements,” Infantino wrote.
“Secondly, I will propose that the Council establish a direct, structured and time-limited consultation with confederations, member associations and relevant stakeholders on how FIFA’s decision-making can be further strengthened.
“The consultation would invite specific proposals on previous institutional involvement, the respective roles of the President, the Bureau, the Council and Congress, and practical ways to strengthen transparency, participation and accountability in important strategic initiatives.”
Infantino has been fighting for his survival since it became public that he wanted to privatize the World Cup through the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
UEFA has led the charge against him and in a recent letter, European football chief Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf supremo Victor Montagliani demanded FIFA tap its vast reserves to distribute more development money to member associations.
Infantino now claims that no decision had been made on the sale.
He wrote: “The proposal entered the public domain before FIFA’s intended institutional process had been completed and before it could be fully presented to the Council and member associations. I recognize that, without full context, this caused concern and created the impression that decisions had already been made. They had not.”
Infantino earlier apologized after a crisis meeting in Rabat, Morocco, but UEFA, Concacaf and AFC said they had lost confidence in the FIFA president. Ahead of the Champions League draw in Monaco, UEFA escalated the crisis and filed a discovery motion in US courts related to FFE documents.
It has not discouraged Infantino, who wants to make a fourth appearance at the FIFA Congress in Rabat next year. However, FIFA’s statutes limit a FIFA president to three four-year terms. These term limits were introduced as part of a governance reform package in the wake of the FIFAGate scandal in 2015. Infantino had helped craft the reforms to save FIFA at a time of existential crisis.
Infantino continues to defend development money. Under his presidency, more than $5 billion has been distributed to member associations and the FFE plans would have been a huge boon to football associations, which often depend on FIFA’s development for their operations and survival. In his letter, Infantino again emphasized how FIFA wants to fulfill its mission.
“The withdrawal of this proposal does not diminish our ambition or our responsibility to reinvest a greater share of the fruits of FIFA’s success in football. We will continue to explore sustainable ways to increase FIFA’s resources,” Infantino wrote. “What changes is not the ambition, but the strength of the process.”
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at (email protected)
