The house of cards built by Gianni Infantino for several years is collapsing gently but surely. Under fire from critics and more cornered than ever, the president of FIFA summoned the executives of the governing body of world football for a crisis meeting this Wednesday, according to information from the “Times”, the media which had already revealed the project, finally abandoned, to sell shares of the World Cup to private investors close to Donald Trump.
Still according to the same source, Gianni Infantino summoned his executives to Rabat, where he took refuge to escape the media storm. The aim of this crisis meeting is to urge FIFA’s 211 member associations to publicly support the current president.
This appears more like a last desperate attempt to maintain power. As a reminder, three FIFA member associations, Wales, Sweden and Serbia, have already officially withdrawn their support for Gianni Infantino ahead of the next presidential election.
Dropped by his loyal lieutenants
Since the “Times” revealed Gianni Infantino’s project, the latter has been castigated from all sides. Even his loyal acolytes have turned against him. His right-hand man Carlos Cordeiro resigned on July 31.
More recently, Arsène Wenger distanced himself from his boss by declaring that abandoning the project, in which he was not involved and of which he learned about through the press, was “absolutely necessary”.
Arsène Wenger’s decision followed an email to FIFA staff from Mattias Grafström, the general secretary, who spoke of “a series of sad and reprehensible events” regarding the project led by Gianni Infantino.
