Gianni Infantino: English FA set to withdraw support for FIFA president as UEFA considers legal action | Football News

UEFA has threatened legal action against FIFA over Gianni Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan.

In a letter addressed to Infantino dated Friday July 31, European football’s governing body said it was “actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints” in relation to FIFA’s scrapped plan.

Key members of the FIFA administration have been warned not to destroy any evidence which may be required during potential litigation proceedings.

The news follows the loss of confidence in Infantino’s leadership after the botched attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup. The Football Association is now set to withdraw its support for Infantino.

The FA is to write to Infantino to withdraw a previous letter supporting his re-election in what is a sign of the co-ordinated approach Europe is taking to remove him from office as quickly as possible.

The Welsh FA became the first football association to officially withdraw support for Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president, with their Swedish counterparts joining them later on Monday.

Many more letters and announcements are likely in the next few days and it is all designed to put maximum pressure on Infantino.

So far, Infantino has shown no sign of being ready to resign in disgrace and he has been trying to shore up his position by asking for support from the federations who still back him – mostly in Africa, Asia and South America.

Even if Infantino does manage to survive in the short term, he is now almost certain to face at least one challenger at the FIFA presidential election in Morocco in March.

US Government denies Infantino report

A US Government spokesman has denied a report in the New York Post which said Infantino was due to speak to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday in a bid to keep his job.

Rubio attended USA’s opening game of the World Cup against Paraguay in Los Angeles alongside Infantino in June.

The Post also reported that Infantino has been trying – and failing – to contact President Trump by telephone since Friday.

‘Infantino has not delivered any sort of contrition’

Analysis by Sky News sports correspondent Rob Harris:

This is an attempt to build up momentum to pile the pressure on Gianni Infantino to force him out of office. Putting out that statement on Thursday didn’t work – announcing a boycott of the World Cup by European nations. Saturday’s statement from UEFA also didn’t pressure Infantino into the action that they wanted.

It’s a huge fall from grace not just two weeks after the World Cup final, but I was there in February in Wales when Infantino was being hosted by the FAW for the IFAB meeting. And that’s what puts The FA and the FAW at such a significant place because they hold two of the eight IFAB votes.

But certainly Infantino has not delivered any sort of contrition that was wanted from UEFA. No sort of pledge to change things, to ensure something like this could never happen again – concealing plans in private, landing them on football associations around the world.

But Infantino still does have backing from Africa, the Middle East as well, Qatar in particular, and Morocco. So you sense that he is really trying to rally support, perhaps calling political favours from around the world to show that he still does have support, with those statements actually praising him for redrawing the plans after listening to the world.

So this is really significant because even despite all the questions in the last few months and last year about things Infantino has overseen at FIFA, the FA has still shown its support for his re-election next year. And yet this is the final straw and that’s why they’ve now withdrawn that support. So we’ll wait to see what happens.

There’s very little sense he can keep going until that election in March in Morocco. Will they have to force a vote of no confidence? Will he bow to this pressure and go? It’s 11 years since Sepp Blatter had to quit in disgrace. And what we do know, Infantino has a sort of narrowing number of people around him to try to figure out a way out of this.

What were FIFA’s World Cup plans?

Under the initial proposal to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), football’s world governing body aimed to raise up to $4.2bn (£3.1bn) from external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, which it said would be valued at around $20bn (£15bn).

The governing body said its plans – which would have required approval from member associations – could deliver more than $10bn in “football development funding” over the next four years.

Who could replace Infantino?

Sky Sports News chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol:

There’s been talk about the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, one of the most powerful men in world football, who is on the UEFA executive committee. But my understanding is that he is not interested in replacing Infantino.

Other candidates are people like Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who came second in the vote to become FIFA president 10 years ago. He’s the president of the AFC, who also oppose the sell-off plans.

Then there’s the president of CONCACAF, Victor Montagliani. We’ve just had the World Cup in three CONCACAF countries and historically, CONCACAF have been close to Infantino, but they said on Thursday that they rejected the proposal as well.

Finally, someone I think would be very popular is Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA. He has a totally different vision about the way football should be run. If he was the president of FIFA, there would be no hydration breaks, no FIFA Peace Prizes, no Qatari-owned private jets for the president, no $1m (£742,000) World Cup tickets.

But I don’t think Ceferin has ever expressed any desire or interest publicly to replace Infantino.

Perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves. Infantino is under a lot of pressure and it would be fair to say he is fighting for his job, but we are not at the stage where people are going to come out and say they are going to stand against him.