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FIFA president Gianni Infantino\u2019s desperate clinging to his job in the aftermath of his disastrous push to sell a share in the World Cup to private equity has prompted condemnation from around the football world.<\/p>\n
European body UEFA has led the charge: first in threatening to boycott the World Cup should FIFA\u2019s plan come to fruition, then in coming at Infantino himself with calls for his axing as president.<\/p>\n
Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n A crisis meeting in Morocco after which FIFA executives pledged their support for the under-fire Swiss \u2013 and released a statement threatening blowback for continued criticism of the organisation \u2013 is unlikely to mend the growing rift between the body and its member nations.<\/p>\n LATEST FIFA NEWS<\/b><\/p>\n \u2018GRUBBY, UNDERHAND PLOT\u2019: <\/i>Infantino hits back after stunning whack<\/i><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n \u2018BLACKMAIL\u2019: Senior figures turn on embattled FIFA boss<\/a><\/i>\u2018SHABBY, BACK-ROOM DEAL\u2019: UEFA escalates feud with legal threat<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n In the United Kingdom, however, the criticism has been far broader \u2013 directed not only at Infantino and FIFA, but also at their own Football Association too.<\/p>\n The charge? Failing, along with other European powerhouses, to curb Infantino\u2019s many controversies in the months and years leading to the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we are truly at the \u201cding dong the witch is dead\u201d stage of this narrative, no one will sing louder or more joyously than me,\u201d football correspondent Martin Samuel wrote in The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBut to be joined at the chorus by the very people who propped him up for a decade, who bowed lower and licked harder than all of the many sycophants, who could actually have acted to stop his corruption of the game\u2019s worth, yet did the opposite. Well, let\u2019s just say it\u2019s something of a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n Samuel added: \u201cBefore we got to no, good grief there was an awful lot of yes. <\/p>\n \u201cYes to a World Cup across six countries, yes to a World Cup likely to have the same horrid flaws as the one in Qatar, yes to not having secret ballots, yes to supportive letters to a president who increasingly appears to regard Fifa\u2019s disciplinary regime as fluid, open to suggestions or dependent on status. <\/p>\n \u201cYes to quarters, yes to half-time shows, yes to the FIFA peace prize, yes to the most expensive tickets in history, to egregious flattery, to creeping and crawling, to bowing and scraping, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.\u201d<\/p>\n Infantino\u2019s latest scandal follows a controversial World Cup, at which stadium ticket prices and accusations of Argentina (and Lionel Messi) favouritism were hot topics throughout.<\/p>\n Most infamously, FIFA\u2019s decision to overrule American star Folarin Balogun\u2019s mandatory red card suspension for the USA\u2019s quarter-final against Belgium, having been urged to do so by Donald Trump, sparked universal condemnation.<\/p>\n Infantino\u2019s close personal relationship with Trump has also been criticised, most notably when he awarded the US president the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize late last year.<\/p>\n He also responded to queries over human rights abuses, the treatment of migrant workers and the safety of the LGBTQIA+ community at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with a disastrous press conference where he proclaimed \u201cToday I feel gay. Today I feel disabled\u201d.<\/p>\n However, as Samuel pointed out, Infantino had received near-unanimous support ahead of a potential re-election in early 2027 \u2013 including from the FA, whose chairwoman Debbie Hewitt presented the FIFA boss with a personalised England shirt less than two months ago.<\/p>\n \u201cNever has an executive body found its voice and its ethical principle so swiftly, once deploying either comes with absolutely no risk of recrimination,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is close to impossible to be on the wrong side of this argument now. Yet it was only 40 days ago that Debbie Hewitt, the FA chair, was pictured grinning inanely while presenting the same blasted FIFA president with a personalised England shirt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was around that time that the FA had endorsed his continued presidency by letter.<\/p>\n \u201cRoughly 18 months before, Hewitt helped send the World Cup, unopposed, to Saudi Arabia \u2014 and the 2030 edition to three continents \u2014 on what amounted to the democratic equivalent of jazz hands. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd now the man behind all of the many swindles \u2014 their guy, backed by them, in case you needed reminding after this frantic repositioning \u2014 is the devil incarnate?\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent<\/a> reporter Miguel Delaney was of a similar mind, raking world football over the coals for their tolerance of Infantino and FIFA\u2019s long push towards the extremes of 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cInfantino may now go, but everyone still has to live with the consequences of those decisions. The football world will still have to traipse off to Saudi Arabia in eight years, having many of the same debates from Qatar about human rights and migrant labour,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s because Infantino was allowed to do all of this by the same football politicians now condemning him.<\/p>\n \u201cOne reason he felt emboldened to round on media criticism as recently as Monday was that he wasn\u2019t used to any criticism within the game.<\/p>\n \u201cAs one source said, \u201cnot enough national associations stood up to the unacceptable\u201d \u2013 until it was unpalatable.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mirror<\/a>\u2019s Andy Dunn, meanwhile, was left baffled by the FA\u2019s \u2013 and other European footballing administrations\u2019 – decade-long support of Infantino.<\/p>\n \u201cIn theory, the FA should have one of the most powerful voices in world football but, effectively, it has been silent during a decade in which his tenure has become increasingly embarrassing,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Welsh set the ball rolling when it released a statement on Monday morning. It read: \u201cThe Football Association of Wales hereby confirms its withdrawal of support for the candidature of Mr Gianni Infantino for re-election as FIFA president for the 2027-31 term.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football. Failing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, the obvious response is to wonder how he had their confidence in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n For others, the push to oust Infantino, as it was for Sepp Blatter when the ex-FIFA boss resigned in 2015 amid a swath of corruption charges aimed at top executives, comes too little too late.<\/p>\n While the private equity push has been scrapped, the 2034 World Cup will return to the Middle East when Saudi Arabia hosts the prestige tournament.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, accusations Infantino has promised Morocco hosting rights for the 2030 final in return for their support of his presidential re-election, though denied by FIFA, persist.<\/p>\n \u201cFor years the injustices, the indignities, the reputational and environmental damage, the ruptures to rules and structures, the stitch-ups and dead migrant workers, have been waved through by acclamation,\u201d football scribe Jonathan Liew wrote in The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so it is worth wondering whether anything has materially changed here, beyond the fleeting opportunity for ambitious footballing executives to claim the keys to Infantino\u2019s empire.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing in The i Paper<\/a>, Daniel Shaw urged football leaders to use the Infantino furore to spark a change in governance on a worldwide scale \u2013 with a push led by the people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also need to send a message to those in charge of sporting governance: you are not getting it and we are sick of it,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cYou are supposed to work for us and the sport itself, not for yourselves. How dare you lose sight of that ethic.<\/p>\n You are paid incredibly well and we stomach it, because the responsibility demands excellence. <\/p>\n \u201cBut your job is not an echo chamber of self-serving, private jets and rubbing shoulders with world leaders. You are not paid to position yourself for greater wealth and celebrity. You exist in a position of honour and privilege that should provoke humility not arrogance. <\/p>\n \u201cYou are not kings or queens, but servants.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Infantino\u2019s future, fears persist that the 56-year old could yet retain his job once the immediate firestorm cools.<\/p>\n Writing in The Independent<\/a>, Joy Lo Dico deemed the Swiss a \u201ccockroach\u201d who, with lessons learned from the \u201cDonald Trump playbook\u201d, may be able to weather the storm.<\/p>\n \u201cElected in 2016, just as Trump first seized power, Infantino has staged World Cups in two of the world\u2019s more delicate host nations, Qatar and the USA, and proved he can do Realpolitik with anyone,\u201d Lo Dico wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he also understands, apparently, is the world of power and politics. Popularity is something for little people, and the need for it is a character flaw to shun.<\/p>\n Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cOther qualities are valued: you must be teflon, but also sticky. What you really need is the capacity to cling-on.\u201d<\/p>\n But even if Infantino is ousted, Lo Dico added, it\u2019s doubtful his replacement will be any different.<\/p>\n \u201cFIFA has to straddle curious politics. But it needs a certain kind of person to manage it,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cIf not Infantino, who? Someone similar. He and his ilk won\u2019t be stamped out any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n