Several of Africa’s most influential football officials have rallied behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino as he seeks support from the confederation’s 54 member associations ahead of next March’s election.
Five senior figures have publicly backed Infantino, while also approving his decision to abandon a contentious proposal to sell a share of future World Cup income. Their statements were issued before Thursday’s meeting of the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee, where the scrapped plan to generate $4.2 billion through a new commercial rights company is due to be discussed.
Football authorities in Asia, Europe and CONCACAF — the body responsible for North and Central America and the Caribbean — said over the weekend that they no longer had confidence in Infantino’s leadership. CAF, however, has so far remained silent on the issue, leaving the FIFA president with the possibility of securing backing from its sizeable membership as he fights to retain his position.
CAF said last Wednesday that it would examine Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal. Under mounting pressure, he withdrew the initiative on Friday. The matter remains listed for Thursday’s CAF gathering, although the organisation is not obliged to make a formal judgment on Infantino’s future.
Even so, prominent members of the executive committee have declared their support. They include CAF vice-president Fouzi Lekjaa of Morocco and FIFA Council members Hany Abo Rida of Egypt, Hamidou Djibrilla of Niger and Ahmed Yhaya of Mauritania.
Veron Mosengo-Omba has also voiced his backing. Mosengo-Omba was recently elected president of the football federation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and previously served as CAF general secretary. He and Infantino attended university together in Switzerland.
Their statements followed a similar pattern: each welcomed the withdrawal of the commercial plan before praising Infantino and making clear their continued support for him.
African football associations played a significant role in Infantino’s election victory in 2016, after he promised to more than double the development funding distributed to FIFA’s member associations. That financial expansion has helped preserve his popularity across the continent, where many federations face severe financial constraints and now rely heavily on FIFA support simply to operate and compete.
Saïd Ali Athouman, president of the Comoros Football Federation, said the shortage of funding was the central challenge for smaller nations. Comoros, he explained, currently had no sponsors, making it difficult to compete with wealthy countries that can invest in player development, facilities and equipment. Their superior results, he added, were therefore no surprise, while most European nations did not face the same obstacles.
Fleetwood Haiya, president of the Football Association of Malawi, said his country also needed substantial investment. The government, he said, was struggling to provide even basic medical supplies for hospitals while also supporting football. Malawi required both funding and stadiums, he added.
FIFA’s baseline funding programme guarantees each of its 211 member associations $8 million during every four-year cycle. CAF has also introduced an annual payment for its own member associations.
The practice of awarding grants to national associations was first proposed by Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, during his 1998 election campaign against Lennart Johansson. Blatter won with the support of most African countries, despite CAF’s official endorsement of Johansson, then the UEFA president. African associations had not previously received financial assistance from world football’s governing body.
Infantino retained Blatter’s concept, changing its name from the Goal Project to FIFA Forward and dramatically increasing the amount of money available.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe had offered particularly strong praise for Infantino just days before the controversy over the proposed World Cup revenue sale emerged. Motsepe said he personally supported Infantino, describing him as not only a good friend but also a loyal one who had stood by Africa. He added that, given his own background, he would never betray someone who had shown loyalty to him.
