ZURICH — Gianni Infantino apologised to the FIFA Council on Thursday for not telling it sooner about his plan to sell a stake in future World Cups. Debbie Hewitt, who chairs England’s Football Association and sits on that Council as a vice president, told reporters afterwards that “if he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he’s not fit to be FIFA president, and that was what was shared in the meeting.”
The apology did not buy what Hewitt wanted: answers. Sky Sports reported that Council members got none to “anything we had specifically requested” about the World Cup stake sale Infantino abandoned this summer or the Folarin Balogun case, and were told to submit their questions. FIFA’s own release says the proposal has been “permanently withdrawn and will not reappear in any form.”
The papers are the fight. UEFA wants every document on the plan released, because it believes the 20 per cent stake in all future FIFA tournaments was being sold for a knockdown price. FIFA’s release says outside lawyers briefed the Council on the legal background, but that the details “remain confidential due to ongoing legal proceedings in the United States”, where FIFA has already called UEFA’s legal campaign a smear campaign.
Nobody outside the room can test the money. Sky Sports chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol said the company behind the stake was valued at $20 billion when this summer’s World Cup made $15 billion. Goal reported that UEFA’s August 28 filing in the United States put the stake’s price at $4.2 billion and called it a “fraudulently off-market price”. FIFA’s release gives no valuation at all.
The Council’s own decisions were thinner than the noise around them. In FIFA’s release, the Football Social Responsibility Committee will assess the FIFA Peace Prize that Infantino gave Donald Trump, with a decision in December. Sky reports it is likely to be scrapped, which FIFA did not say. The Legal Committee will review disciplinary procedures after the one-match ban on the United States’ Folarin Balogun was suspended for a probationary year. Sky ties that suspension to a call from Trump to Infantino, and Norway’s federation had already filed an ethics complaint in July over the Balogun ban reversal.
The Council also tabled a $6.35 billion Surplus Solidarity Programme for 2027 to 2030, about $25 million for each of 211 member associations, which still needs December’s Council and March’s Congress.
Infantino wants a fourth term at March’s election in Morocco, and candidates have until November 18 to declare. Sky lists Arsene Wenger, Luis Figo and Michelle Kang as names mentioned, and says it remains to be seen whether any will run. UEFA, which declared no confidence in Infantino in August, wants him out.
The questions now go in writing. FIFA’s release does not say whether the answers will come in the open, as Hewitt asked, or before November 18.
