Gianni Infantino fires up emergency FIFA meeting as crisis spirals

Gianni Infantino has convened an emergency meeting of FIFA staff in Rabat on August 5 after remarks by Arsene Wenger intensified scrutiny of the FIFA president, the Press Association has reported.

Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who now serves as FIFA’s chief of global football development, released a statement stressing that he was “not involved” in the proposal to seek private investment in a company that would oversee the World Cup. He added that the decision to abandon the initiative was “absolutely necessary and beyond question.”

The meeting in Morocco was arranged after the weekend and will also be attended by FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and members of the organisation’s management board, including chief of staff Daniel O’Toole, chief legal officer Emilio Garcia Silvero, chief of member associations Elkhan Mammadov, HR chief Kimberly Morris, media director Bryan Swanson and communications director David Farrelly.

Grafstrom, the second-highest-ranking official in FIFA after Infantino, is also understood to have contacted staff regarding the “sad and reproachable series of events” over the past week, saying they had “thankfully concluded with the project being permanently abandoned.”

The proposal to establish FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company intended to manage the commercial and operational activities of FIFA tournaments, first came to light through reports by The Times and the Financial Times last week before FIFA confirmed elements of the plan. The most contentious feature was the proposal to sell a 20% stake in FFE to private investors.

The initiative was strongly opposed by UEFA, CONCACAF — which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean — and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). UEFA also warned that it could boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, unless the proposal was withdrawn.

Although the project has now been scrapped, UEFA said it had nevertheless “lost confidence” in Infantino. Several of its member associations, including England and Wales, have since formally withdrawn their backing for the FIFA president, while the Scottish Football Association is understood to share UEFA’s position.

By Jeyhun Aghazada