FIFA’s senior leadership has again expressed its backing for president Gianni Infantino following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, on Wednesday.
Infantino faced widespread opposition from football figures and organisations after proposing the sale of a 20 per cent share in a commercial-rights company to private investors. The plan was intended to generate roughly $4.2 billion for FIFA.
The proposal triggered strong criticism across the sport, with European football’s governing body UEFA among the most vocal opponents.
Shortly after the plan was announced, UEFA said that football was not something that could be owned and sold by any individual or organisation.
UEFA subsequently declared that it no longer trusted Infantino’s leadership, prompting several European football federations to withdraw their support for his bid to secure another term in March 2027.
CONCACAF, which oversees football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, also joined UEFA in expressing no confidence in Infantino.
Seeking to ease the dispute, Infantino announced last Friday that the proposed 20 per cent sale to investors had been abandoned.
FIFA said in a statement on Wednesday that members of its management board had renewed their complete support for Infantino.
The organisation said that, after the Rabat meeting, the FIFA secretary general and the management board members present had confirmed their backing for the president.
FIFA also said Infantino had reaffirmed his support for secretary general Mattia Graftstorm.
The statement said the president, in turn, had voiced his full backing for the secretary general and FIFA’s administration as they carried out the important work required to implement his vision.
FIFA noted that Infantino, who has held the presidency since 2016, remains “the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations.”
It also confirmed that a separate letter had been sent to FIFA Council members and the organisation’s member associations to apologise for the controversy that followed the proposed rights-sale announcement.
FIFA said it had acknowledged that the Council and the member associations were never meant to feel shut out of the process, adding that the matter should have been managed in a different way.
After withdrawing the disputed proposal, FIFA stated that it would “no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process.”
