\u201cdeceived\u201d by Infantino<\/a>, describing the proposal as a \u201cproject of one person\u201d.<\/p>\nBritish Prime \u200cMinister Andy Burnham, meanwhile, told reporters on Friday that Infantino was \u201cthe wrong man to lead the organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
What now for FIFA President Infantino?<\/p>\n
The nature of the backlash towards FIFA\u2019s plans immediately raised doubts about Infantino\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old, who was born in Switzerland to Italian parents, was already under pressure due to his perceived relationship with United States President Donald Trump during the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Trump revealed that he called Infantino about a red card shown to USA star Folarin Balogun, which was thereafter suspended for a year, and the forward was free to play in his country\u2019s next World Cup match.<\/p>\n
The expectation for FIFA\u2019s private investment scheme was that Joshua Kushner, the founder of Thrive Capital, would lead the proposed venture capital group via a fund called Thrive Eternal.<\/p>\n
Joshua is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump.<\/p>\n
President Trump \u2060said on Friday at Camp David that he \u200cdid not speak with Infantino about FIFA offering \u2060stakes to \u2060external investors.<\/p>\n
Infantino is due to stand for re-election for a final term through 2031, and was expected to be unopposed following the overall success of the recent World Cup, which was cohosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
The fallout from FIFA\u2019s proposal, however, has resulted in questions, albeit not fully overt, about Infantino\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
Are there realistic contenders to challenge Infantino\u2019s presidency of FIFA?<\/p>\n
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had been a key ally for Infantino in his 11-year presidency, but in their statement of opposition to the private investment plans came the recommendation that FIFA must urgently review its management style.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The plans] exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA\u2019s consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed,\u201d said the statement from the AFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the AFC\u2019s longtime president, narrowly lost the FIFA presidential election to Infantino in 2016.<\/p>\n
The Bahraini said in his own statement on Thursday that FIFA\u2019s plans were \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
His statement added, \u201cFIFA\u2019s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football, which are based on solidarity, cooperation and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
North American \u200cfootball chief Victor Montagliani, meanwhile, has been linked with a move to \u2060challenge \u2060Infantino for the FIFA presidency in next March\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
Infantino said in April he \u200cwould seek a fourth term as FIFA president, with the election scheduled to take place in Morocco on March 18 next year.<\/p>\n
The deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members is November 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World football\u2019s governing body, FIFA, has said it will not proceed with its proposal to sell a piece…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":972766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[440,1318,50,221,1926,62,376,67,132,68,72,21490],"class_list":["post-972765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117018357005673525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}