FIFA’s Infantino Scrambles To Save Job After World Cup Equity Plan Backfires

Topline

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is reportedly racing to secure his future with soccer’s governing body after a plan to privatize and sell a portion of the World Cup spectacularly backfired last week—but the Trump administration says it isn’t part of the plan to save his job despite reporting Monday morning suggesting the White House could lend a hand.

Key Facts

Soccer associations from around the world came together last week to slam a plan by Infantino to sell a 20% minority stake in the World Cup to private investors—and the aggressive backlash has some teams now backing off their support for his fourth term as calls for his resignation grow.

England's Football Association will be withdrawing its support for Infantino’s reelection as FIFA president in an attempt to force his resignation, the Guardian reported Monday, after Wales, Serbia, Sweden and Finland did the same.

More European countries are expected to follow suit after figures like U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, La Liga president Javier Tebas and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter all called for Infantino to step down last week.

A report by the New York Post on Monday morning claimed Infantino had secured a call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to seek the administration’s help in keeping his job after President Donald Trump, with whom Infantino has developed a close relationship, reportedly ignored several of his calls.

Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson shot down the report and said there were “no plans” for Rubio to speak with the embattled sports executive.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

How much support he loses. More than 200 of FIFA’s 211 member associations had formally endorsed Infantino for another term before the investment plan. While his European supporters are backing off, he remains popular in Africa, South America and parts of Asia despite the Western revolt, per the Guardian. He needs 106 votes to win reelection, meaning he can lose all 55 votes of Europe's UEFA—and all of 35 of North and Central America's CONCACAF—and still be reelected. So far, nobody has stepped up to run against him, but the Guardian reported UEFA is considering presenting its own candidate.

TANGENT

Until recently, Infantino was undeniably popular among national association executives. He has grown his support among member associations since he was initially elected a decade ago by substantially increasing FIFA's revenue, expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams and positioning himself as a champion of "football development" in smaller, less wealthy countries. For the last several months, he's been lobbying hard for support of his reelection in March. At the FIFA Congress in May, he promised to increase team distributions by 20% to at least $2.7 billion over the next four years, which Reuters reported is particularly influential in securing the sport of smaller nations like Vanuatu and Bhutan, which receive millions of dollars in FIFA development grants. He's particularly popular among members of Africa's CAF (54 votes) and South America's CONMEBOL (10 votes), and is generally liked by Oceania's OFC (11 votes) and Asia's AFC (46 votes), though the latter did criticize his World Cup privatization plan.

Key background

FIFA early last week announced a plan to raise an estimated $4.2 billion this year by selling a reported 20% minority stake in a new subsidiary—called FIFA Forward Enterprise—at an equity valuation of $20 billion. FIFA said it would remain the primary owner of the new subsidiary and maintain control over scheduling competitions and matches, as well as governance and regulatory decisions. The backlash to the idea was immediate, with critics saying soccer "is not FIFA's to sell" and predicting the World Cup (which FIFA is considering expanding to 64 teams) would become nothing but a money grab for investors. The process itself also infuriated soccer confederations, which said they weren't consulted about the plan before it went public. Carlos Cordeiro, a senior Infantino adviser, resigned in protest and FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were "deceived" by a lack of openness in the "one-person" scheme. UEFA and CONCACAF members came out unanimously in opposition and the AFC was also critical.