Infantino under huge pressure after plan for World Cup sell-off sparks resignation and rebuke

The walls started closing in on Gianni Infantino after another dramatic day that saw one of his senior advisers resign and brought a scathing rebuke from Fifa’s own chief operating officer.

Infantino is under huge pressure after his plan to sell chunks of the World Cup to private investors met a tide of opposition from around the globe. European countries have already promised to boycott Fifa competitions if he does not shelve the scheme but Friday’s developments, which led to two key members of his inner circle distancing themselves from him, may prove equally damaging to any prospects of salvaging his presidency.

Meanwhile Uefa and other confederations are actively seeking candidates to run against Infantino in next year’s Fifa election, in which he had been expected to comfortably win a fourth term. The pressure that has built since this week’s revelations casts doubt on whether the previously unassailable Swiss, who has doubled down on the proposals, will be able to cling on for that long.

The resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, one of Infantino’s senior advisers since 2021, struck a fresh blow upon Infantino hours after Uefa’s 55 members had unanimously threatened a boycott. Cordeiro, a former US Soccer chief, said Infantino had proposed “a bad deal for Fifa’s member associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game”. He questioned the lack of transparency in Fifa’s process and pointed out that the governing body is sitting on vast debt-free reserves that could be used to fund development.

“Why this deal?” he asked. “Why now? What oversight exists? Who benefits? Was there a competitive process? What governance will be in place? What will investors ultimately gain, and at what cost to football?”

But an extraordinary statement later in the day by Kevin Lamour, Fifa’s current chief operating officer, may have inflicted a more serious wound. Lamour, a close associate of Infantino at Fifa and during their previous spells at Uefa, said staff and other stakeholders had been “deceived” by the president and said he would tolerate being sacked for expressing his views.

“What has been announced in recent days and what has been happening behind the scenes in recent months defies belief and imagination,” Lamour said. “To put it very clearly and directly: the project that has sparked so much controversy and debate is not a Fifa project. It is even less a project of Fifa’s administration. It is the project of one person.

“The Fifa vice-presidents, the members of the Fifa Council, the confederations, the federations, the players, the leagues, the clubs, and the fans were not the only ones who were ignored. Fifa’s own administration was also deceived.

“This lie by omission over many months and this unilateral exercise of power are not trivial. They are indicative of a lack of trust, a lack of transparency, a lack of discernment, a lack of good governance. And a serious lack of respect.”

Lamour said Fifa’s mission is “not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies Fifa when he is supposed to be at its service”. He stated that his colleagues “deserve better than contempt and intimidation”, adding: “My feeling is that we all want to be proud to work for Fifa, and today, unfortunately, it seems that is no longer the case for many of us.”

Infantino appears to be shedding allies and there was no succour to be taken from a strongly worded statement from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which backed Uefa and Concacaf in their opposition to the privately funded Fifa Forward Enterprise plan. The AFC stopped short of matching Uefa’s boycott but was clear in saying the proposal should be scrapped.

Carlos Cordeiro (left) with Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office in 2018. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

“The fact that the situation has reached the point where the real possibility of a Fifa World Cup boycott has entered public discourse should concern everyone who cares about the future of our game,” it said. “The AFC believes that the proposed FFE cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward.”

It called upon Fifa to “undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework”, echoing its peers’ complaints about a lack of consultation regarding key decisions such as World Cup hosting arrangements.

A further revelation on Friday that Fifa has opened a tender for research companies to assess the economic benefits of expanding the World Cup to 64 teams, demanding a hugely accelerated timescale, has only increased such concerns in football’s corridors of power.

Uefa is minded to play a waiting game after securing a united front in opposing Infantino’s plan. It will assess how Fifa reacts, although early signs suggest little change of tack. Overnight Fifa had attempted to blame media reporting for such widespread opposition, claiming its commitment to “an open and democratic consultation”, although that intervention has cut no ice among its opponents.

It is unlikely any mechanism to depose Infantino will be triggered immediately although in theory an extraordinary Fifa Congress, and subsequent vote of confidence, could be convened if 43 countries make such a request. The priority around Uefa and beyond is to see off the FFE plan before taking further steps. Any Europe-backed candidate for the Fifa presidency election in March is likely to hail from a different continent, with the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, and AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, among possible contenders. The latter lost narrowly to Infantino in the 2016 election.

Fifa continues to lobby federations to accept their project and have stuck by the 19 September deadline originally given for those who wish to sign up.