October 16 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has survived a revolt over his much-maligned plans to privatize the World Cup by the FIFA Council, consolidating, for now, his position at the helm of the world federation.
On Thursday, after months of global governance turmoil over FIFA’s abandoned Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme, an Infantino finally came face-to-face with his executive board and began the meeting by apologizing for the plans.
Infantino lamented the lack of communication and consultation while putting together that deal, but went so far as to say the proposal never materialized. He refused to apologize for his choice of partners: Thrive Capital and Joshua Kushner.
In a video released after the Council meeting by FIFA, Infantino said: “But what’s important to remember is that it was a proposal, so by no means a done deal, just a proposal that was actually intended to allow FIFA to invest more in our member associations rather than replace support from existing resources.”
The reality is that it was a done deal, it just hadn’t been authorized by FIFA members, which Infantino had clearly miscalculated.
His apology was followed by a presentation from FIFA’s lawyers, Linklaters, which sources say was weak and unconvincing, to the point of being intellectually insulting, as they insisted the FFE’s plans would have been good for FIFA. FIFA had, of course, paid lawyers for the filing, but they were apparently not Infantino’s advisers on the settlement agreements Infantino had drawn up with Thrive Capital, the formation of the FFE corporation, or another personal contract reported to exist with Infantino outlining his services as he moved on to run the new company. They left the boardroom without answering questions, after which FIFA directors, with the exception of Emilio García, were asked to leave.
Infantino then faced a barrage of questions predominantly from members of the European Council on the issue, including when he initiated talks and negotiations with Thrive Capital.
Instead, it was in survival mode, “giving answers that weren’t answers,” according to one Council member. The questioning was so intense that Infantino couldn’t keep up with the questioning and said they had to submit written questions and he would ask them all later.
Council members, including Concacaf, also demanded to see documents relating to the FFE, but once again Infantino and FIFA refused to accept the request. At the end of August, UEFA filed motions in the US courts, aimed at the discovery of documents from the FFE. The request mirrored one from the US House Judiciary Committee to which Infantino has also declined to respond.
European Council members left the meeting dissatisfied with having demanded since late July that he explain his actions and arguing that his position as FIFA president was untenable. But Infantino has refused to resign and is yet to explain his actions. Instead, he has doubled down on protecting his presidential ambitions, traveling the world to campaign for a leadership renewal at the upcoming FIFA Congress in Morocco.
After the meeting, the president of the English FA, Debbie Hewitt, questioned the FIFA president’s fitness to lead.
“We didn’t get answers to anything we specifically asked for. I think the man (Infantino) needs to answer those questions, and if he doesn’t answer those questions, he’s not fit to be president of FIFA. That’s what was shared at the meeting,” Hewitt said.
It was one of the few high-profile FIFA Council meetings during Infantino’s decade-long reign during which he has dominated FIFA’s strategy and turned the Council into little more than a rubber-stamping exercise for his agenda. Infantino has only previously encountered resistance when he tried to sell FIFA competitions to Softbank in 2018 (a scheme similar in principle to his 2026 liquidation attempt) and when the expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup threatened the world federation’s reserves.
The president of the German FA, Bernd Neuendorf, said immediately after the meeting: “The whole administration and the whole governance must be reformed. But it is quite clear to me here that this is not possible with Gianni as the head of FIFA. So I think we need a complete reset, I think, a political reset of the people who represent FIFA.
“Yes, he apologized, but I didn’t feel like that apology was for the FFE project as a whole. My impression was that it was just because he didn’t show up at the town hall and there was no one involved.”
The atmosphere during the four-hour meeting was often acrimonious. On the eve of the Council, Infantino and the board had met for a nicer dinner at Lulu in Zurich.
Cindy Cone, Rajesh Patel of Fiji and Sheikh Hamad Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar attended the online meeting.
The next time Infantino will meet his employers and accusers in a semi-public forum will be FIFA’s Extraordinary Congress on November 23, which will be held virtually. It will take place five days after nominations for the next FIFA presidential election in March 2027 have closed.
In a moment, expect Infantino’s private jet, financed by Qatar, to travel the world to rack up many more air miles.
Contact the writer of this story at (email protected). Additional reports from (email protected)
