Sports30 July, 20262 min read
Gianni Infantino Summons FIFA Leaders in Rabat as Wenger, Grafstrom, and Prince Ali Oppose Plan
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5 Western Mainstream4 Other2 West Asian3 Other source typesThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Infantino convened Rabat meeting with FIFA senior leaders over sale of World Cup stakes. Arsène Wenger, Mattias Grafström, and Prince Ali oppose the sale plan.
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Infantino faces revolt
Gianni Infantino’s position as FIFA president looked precarious as criticism mounted over his plan to sell stakes in FIFA’s commercial and event operations, with BBC reporting he summoned senior leaders to an executive meeting in Rabat on Wednesday. The BBC said Infantino called the meeting after Arsene Wenger, Mattias Grafstrom, and Prince Ali all made clear their opposition to the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan, which Infantino had framed as a solution to how FIFA runs competitions.
BBC also reported that Wenger said in a statement issued through FIFA that scrapping the plan was "absolutely necessary and beyond question," while Grafstrom called the last week "a sad and reproachable series of events" in an internal email to FIFA staff. In the same BBC account, Prince Ali accused FIFA of creating a situation which "amounts to blackmail" over unpaid prize money and support for Infantino’s re-election, as the controversy over the project spilled into the question of who might replace Infantino next.
Who could replace him
As the FIFA Forward Enterprise backlash intensified, BBC asked "Who might replace him if he goes?" and pointed to a threatened boycott of FIFA competitions by UEFA reinforced by Concacaf and the AFC. BBC quoted former Football Association chairman David Bernstein saying, "In a normal organisation, if he has to back down due to something of this magnitude he'd probably be shown the door," while also citing former FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce saying Infantino would "still have enough support" to be re-elected.
FourFourTwo framed the same moment as a PR nightmare, saying UEFA and CONCACAF promised boycotts and that the AFC also expressed opposition to the plans to bring private investors on board to help run FIFA competitions. FourFourTwo then listed possible contenders including Aleksander Ceferin, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and Victor Montagliani, while also describing Ceferin as having positioned himself as an "antidote to Infantino's ills" and noting Montagliani’s role as president of CONCACAF.
Pressure, votes, and stakes
The stakes for Infantino’s leadership were tied to whether member associations would back him for re-election, with BBC reporting that before the World Cup final Infantino said he had received more than 200 letters of support from the 211 member associations for his re-election. BBC also reported that Prince Ali wrote on X that the problem was with leadership and said FIFA had been refusing to help Jordan "until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out."
In La FM’s discussion of the political landscape, Martín de Francisco said FIFA is made up of 211 national federations and that "To achieve a majority you need 106 votes," while also arguing UEFA would contribute 55 associations, CONCACAF 41 more, and the Asian Confederation 37. La FM’s analysis concluded that "In theory, he would have 142 votes today," while Hernán Peláez said CONMEBOL continues to back the current president and that the strongest name to face Infantino would be Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain.