Infantino Abandons Kushner Deal But Fails To Halt Global FIFA Uprising

Gianni Infantino’s decision to abandon plans for a high-stakes private equity partnership with a firm operated by Joshua Kushner has not quieted calls for a change in FIFA’s leadership.“No options should be off the table,” said the president of the European soccer body UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin. “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family.”Mr. Ceferin is among those who vehemently opposed Mr. Infantino’s proposal on Tuesday to create a $20 billion company to run commercial aspects of the World Cup. The main investor was to have been Thrive Capital, a firm operated by Mr. Kushner, the younger brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner,Mr. Infantino, in his 11th year at the helm of FIFA, scrapped the plan after his senior adviser on the World Cup Task Force resigned and soccer bodies in Asia, Europe and North America voted within their memberships to oppose it.Mr. Infantino said the private equity play was “intended to provide a basis for further strengthening our FIFA Member Associations and our sport worldwide.” But the world doesn’t seem to like the idea.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, called it “an outrageous suggestion,” adding, “football does not belong to investors,” while the UEFA declared, “The World Cup is not for sale.” Needing a majority of its 211 national associations to pass, the proposal was doomed after UEFA (55 members), Concacaf (35) and Asia (46) vowed to vote against the measure.“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Mr. Infantino wrote in a statement released by FIFA.“Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support.”The resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, Mr. Infantino’s senior adviser, who called the proposal, “a bad idea for football,” is not the only signal of division within FIFA executive ranks. FIFA’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, criticized Mr. Infantino’s lack of transparency in unveiling the private equity proposal.“It is the project of one person,” Mr. Lamour, a longtime colleague of Mr. Infantino, told the Associated Press. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”Mr. Infantino, who was first elected as FIFA president in 2016, is seeking a fourth and final term that would run through 2031. His re-election seemed a foregone conclusion until complaints emerged about his close ties to President Trump and issues over ticket sales and visa distributions. The fallout from the plan backed by Mr. Kushner has FIFA members looking for alternative candidates.“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” the UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account. It is right that in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian soccer federation, said the integrity of the sport needs to be protected.“The entire framework of international football cooperation was unnecessarily put at risk in pursuit of individual interests rather than the best interests of the game,” Ms. Klaveness said. “This has been visible to many for a long time, including those of us elected to positions intended to safeguard checks and balances and provide ongoing oversight.”Mr. Trump distanced himself from the controversy, saying he “never spoke” to Mr. Infantino about the proposal.FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for candidates to declare themselves ahead of the presidential election scheduled for March at Rabat, Morocco, FIFA’s African headquarters. One name that has emerged as a potential candidate is that of a Qatari sports executive, Nasser al-Khelaifi, who is president of Paris Saint-Germain in France.

Infantino Abandons Kushner Deal But Fails To Halt Global FIFA Uprising

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