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≡ FIFA IN CRISIS ≡

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (SUI) “has called senior Fifa staff to a crisis meeting in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, where he is holed up … Infantino has summoned staff to Rabat, sources say, in a desperate attempt to cling to power.”

That’s from Martyn Ziegler’s story in The Times (London) for Wednesday (5th), as pressure continues to be applied for a resignation, or at least a withdrawal from the 2027 Presidential election on 18 March 2027, also to be held in Rabat (coincidence?).

The latest demand for action against him comes from the European Leagues Association, which represents about 1,000 clubs in 53 different leagues, and their worries are not only about the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise private-equity scheme. In part:

“However, the overwhelming rejection of this dangerous idea, and the opaque process behind it, raises serious questions about FIFA’s governance, internal culture and decision-making.

“In this sense, we must not ignore that on Thursday 30th July, amidst the furore over FFE, FIFA shared a ‘research brief’ with agencies in the hope of advancing plans to expand the 2030 men’s World Cup to 64 teams. As with the aborted FFE project, this new proposal involves an impractically short assessment timeline (just four weeks) and zero consultation with the leagues, clubs and players whose planning and livelihoods would be most affected.

“Let us be clear: FIFA must not be allowed to continue taking unilaterally disruptive decisions that fly in the face of the leagues, clubs, players and fans whose sustained efforts and investment drive the value of international football competitions. Now more than ever, FIFA requires governance reform that ensures that all relevant stakeholders have a formal role in decisions that shape the future of our game.

“All these recent events underscore the systemic issues that led European Leagues to lodge a formal complaint in October 2024 with the European Commission regarding FIFA’s conflict of interest as both regulator and commercial operator.”

In the meantime, a direct accusation of possible blackmail was made against FIFA by Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, head of the Jordanian football federation on Monday:

“There is no shortage of issues regarding FIFA. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA [football association] perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time.

“We are a small country with a minimal budget for our FA and had to deal with enormous hurdles. First, getting our fans into the USA: not all were granted VISAS, even though they had tickets – which we also know were sold at exorbitant prices. Secondly, we are being taxed by the US govt through FIFA for our participation. Money that should go to players and staff. This was not the case for those who played and set up camp in Canada and Mexico. But we happened to be in the USA so now we face these huge costs in taxes for having participated.

“Thirdly we have been waiting for reward money for our players since December for the Arab Cup in Qatar, which is a FIFA event. The money our team should receive for having reached the final has not been delivered yet, while at the same time FIFA brags about how many billions they have in reserve.

“It is clear the problem really is with leadership. For months, FIFA has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters – until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out.

“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values. We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”

It is, if true, another incident on top of all of the others surrounding the FIFA President, who, five weeks ago, appeared invincible.

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