FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed regret over the form but did not provide “satisfactory answers” to questions about his aborted plan to open the World Cup to private investors, during an executive council held Thursday in Zurich.
“What is disappointing is that we have received no response to our specific requests,” regretted Debbie Hewitt, president of the English Football Federation and vice-president of FIFA, after this meeting.
Gianni Infantino chaired the first council of the world body on Thursday since the scandal this summer, a few weeks after abandoning his secret plan to open the World Cup to private investors.
The revelation of this project triggered an unprecedented wave of criticism, with UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Confederation subsequently calling for his departure. It was therefore time for explanations with some of the 37 members of this council opposed to this project.
Debbie Hewitt assured that Infantino had presented “some contrition” during this council. “What he really apologized for was not bringing the issue to the Council,” she said. But when she asked Gianni Infantino the reason for the lack of answers to the Council’s questions, he asked her “to submit these questions in writing.”
“I think this man must answer these questions, and if he does not do so now, he is not fit to be president of Fifa,” she insisted.
“Trust is lost”
“We asked a lot of critical questions, there were no satisfactory answers from my point of view,” also regretted the president of the German Federation, Bernd Neuendorf.
“As I said, confidence in him is lost. New people must now develop new ideas and we must determine how to put this organization, which is extremely important for world football, back on a serious footing,” he explained.
But this point of view is not shared by all members of the Council. The president of the Mauritian Federation, Ahmed Yahya, considered that Infantino’s project was in the “interest of football”. “It’s the way that failed,” he added.
