Football world splits as Argentina, Mexico back FIFA president Infantino amid World Cup rights row | Football News
Football’s growing divide over FIFA president Gianni Infantino showed no sign of easing on Friday, with some of his supporters publicly backing him while UEFA stood by its threat to boycott FIFA competitions.The disagreement comes a week after Infantino withdrew his proposal to raise around $4.2 billion by selling a stake in the commercial rights of the FIFA World Cup and other tournaments.Football bodies around the world continued to take sides. Mexico and Argentina’s football associations became the latest to support Infantino, following the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) unanimous backing of his leadership on Thursday.Argentina’s Football Association (AFA) also praised FIFA for admitting mistakes in the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal.Infantino has been under pressure after abandoning a plan, reportedly worth $20 billion, to sell part of the commercial rights of the World Cup through a subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise.In an open letter to Infantino, AFA president Claudio Tapia wrote: “On behalf of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and its Executive Committee, we write to you, dear president, and through your esteemed good offices to the FIFA Executive Committee, to express our support for the work carried out over the last 10 years, which has centred on the development of football worldwide and institutional strength based on a clear, stable and transparent governance model.”Calls for Infantino to step down have increased since the proposal collapsed. On Wednesday, FIFA apologised for mistakes made in the handling of the plan involving private investors.Tapia welcomed FIFA’s decision to admit that errors had been made and that “the process should have been handled differently.”“With respect to the recent events that are now public knowledge, we must acknowledge the Administration’s decision to withdraw a proposal which, from the outset, generated far more uncertainty than certainty within the football family,” the letter said. “That is why it is worth highlighting the acknowledgement of the mistakes made during that process and the apology expressed in the thoughtful message sent to FIFA’s 211 member associations.“South American football body CONMEBOL, however, raised concerns over the “repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue”.The Mexican Football Federation (FMF), one of the hosts of the recently concluded World Cup, also backed Infantino despite its regional governing body CONCACAF earlier calling for a “comprehensive reckoning” with his presidency.CONCACAF, which governs football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, has been one of FIFA’s strongest critics, along with UEFA.On Thursday, UEFA said the conditions it had set for returning to FIFA competitions had still not been met.European football’s governing body said it remained committed to boycotting FIFA events until it received assurances that “such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again”.UEFA has not yet confirmed whether its teams will skip FIFA’s next tournament, the Women’s Under-20 World Cup in Poland next month.The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said it “stood in solidarity” with UEFA and CONCACAF. At the same time, some of its 47 member associations, including Indonesia, the Philippines and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, have publicly backed Infantino.
