The presidents and secretaries general of UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) sent a joint open letter on Monday declaring that football "does not belong to any individual," the latest blow to FIFA president Gianni Infantino as he seeks reelection.
The letter, addressed to "the football family," said leadership in football is not a possession and is not about keeping, or demanding, power for oneself. It added that when trust is broken through deception, and when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.
Confederations divided
Two of Infantino's biggest backers did not sign the letter: the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which has 54 national federations affiliated with FIFA, and the South American confederation Conmebol, which has ten federations including Brazil and Argentina. Oceania's OFC, representing 13 countries, also stayed out.
Concacaf itself is split. Mexico's football federation has publicly distanced itself from Concacaf's position and reaffirmed its support for Infantino, while the United States and Canada backed the joint letter on Monday. The Caribbean Football Union and the Central American Football Union also endorsed on X the call for what the letter described as significant change to reinforce FIFA's governance, transparency and accountability.
Infantino's reelection bid
Infantino is currently the only declared candidate for the elections set for March. He needs a majority of the 211 votes held by FIFA's member associations to win a further four-year term in the post he has held since 2016.
FIFA highlighted the support of CAF and Conmebol at the start of a statement published Saturday night, sent close to midnight in Europe, defending its president. FIFA said there had been a concerted and continuous effort by some to undermine both the organization and its president.
Telegraph report on relationship
The allegations followed a report a day earlier by the British newspaper The Telegraph, which said Infantino, who served as UEFA secretary general from 2009 to 2016, used his position to secure the promotion of an employee with whom he had an intimate relationship. The Telegraph, which did not cite its sources, reported the employee received a six-figure severance payment when she left, in a year the paper did not specify, and had tuition fees of about 50,000 euros ($57,800) covered at a business school.
UEFA, when contacted by AFP, confirmed that a payment was made at the time, along with settlement of costs for an MBA program at a local business school.
World Cup boycott threat
The crisis began in late July with the revelation of Infantino's project, since abandoned, to open FIFA to private investors. On Wednesday, Infantino held a crisis meeting in Morocco that ended with leadership expressing full support for him and apologizing for errors in how decisions on the privatization plan were handled. FIFA said in a statement after the meeting that it had not intended for the Council or member associations to feel excluded from the process, and that it should have been managed differently.
A day later, UEFA, which has led criticism of Infantino, maintained its threat to boycott World Cups, calling the withdrawal of the project and the apologies insufficient. In a letter sent to FIFA's 211 member federations, UEFA, Concacaf and AFC said the situation was being presented as a communication failure when what football had witnessed was a failure of judgment, describing it as a fundamental breakdown of trust toward the institutions FIFA is meant to serve. The three confederations said there was silence where there should be accountability, and distance where there should be transparency, adding that these were not the qualities football deserves in its leadership.
