FIFA denounced Saturday what it described as “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to weaken” the organization and its president, Gianni Infantino, at a moment when the Italian-Swiss official faces allegations of favoritism.
“Information published recently contained unsubstantiated claims and manifestly false allegations regarding FIFA and its president. Speculation and insinuation must not be presented as fact, and repeating an allegation does not make it true,” the organization said in a statement, without specifying exactly which allegations it was referring to.
According to an article published Friday evening by the British newspaper The Telegraph, the 56-year-old Italian-Swiss official, who served as secretary general of European football’s governing body, UEFA, from 2009 to 2016, used his position to secure a promotion for an employee with whom he had a close personal relationship.
According to The Telegraph, citing unidentified sources, this employee, after being promoted for some time at UEFA, received a “six-figure severance payment” authorized by Infantino when she departed, in an unspecified year, in addition to roughly €50,000 in tuition payments for a business school program.
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Contacted by the Agence France-Presse news agency, UEFA acknowledged that “a payment” had been made at the time, “accompanied by the payment of costs for an MBA at a local business school.” However, UEFA stressed that “this payment was in compliance with the rules then in effect for staff departing the organization.”
In its statement, FIFA said it “welcomes any legitimate critical analysis.” “But this analysis cannot authorize the distortion of facts, the amplification of unsubstantiated allegations, or the artificial creation of distractions intended to halt the progress that has been achieved,” the statement said.
Gianni Infantino, who will seek reelection as FIFA president in the March 2027 election, has been engulfed in crisis since the disclosure, at the end of July, of his controversial plan to open FIFA up to private investors, a proposal that was subsequently abandoned.
The president continues to face opposition from UEFA, which maintained on Thursday its threat to boycott World Cup competitions, arguing that simply withdrawing the controversial proposal was not enough.
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On Friday, Norway’s Football Federation, which has been at the forefront of criticism for several years, called for Infantino’s resignation through its president, Lise Klaveness. In its Saturday statement, FIFA said it “will not support, facilitate or tolerate any process relating to the election of the FIFA president that is contrary to its statutes, its democratic procedures or its established governance framework.”
On July 28, FIFA’s president advocated for the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), wholly owned by the organization, to consolidate commercial rights, selling minority stakes to private investors who would have no operational role in the subsidiary, initially valued at $20 billion (€17.2 billion).
The proposal was met with widespread opposition, and on Saturday, August 1, Infantino backed down, acknowledging that the project would not serve “its original purpose.” The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) had aligned itself with other UEFA members in opposing the FIFA president’s proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, according to a letter obtained by Lusa.
