Gianni Infantino apologised to his toughest critics at a showdown meeting of FIFA’s ruling council on Thursday, but he offered no new details or documents on the issues that most concern them.
There were no documents about the $4.2 billion World Cup sell-off plan he launched and dropped in July. Nor were there any details about the Folarin Balogun red card case at the World Cup or how U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to help the national team forward.
World football’s governing body will, however, review whether to continue awarding the peace prize that was created to give to Trump last December.
Council Meeting Yields Few Answers
Pressed by European football officials for written evidence about his secretive private equity plan for the World Cup, which provoked a global rift, Infantino asked them to submit written questions. FIFA vice president Debbie Hewitt said so after the 3½-hour meeting.
“The man has to answer those questions. If he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he is not fit to be the FIFA president,” said Hewitt, who leads the English Football Association.
European football’s governing body, UEFA, is leading attempts to remove Infantino before or at the FIFA presidential election in March, and the meeting did little to change that view.
“No satisfactory answers were provided,” said German leader Bernd Neuendorf, one of eight UEFA delegates on the 37-member FIFA Council that Infantino chairs. The council had not met since Infantino provoked the crisis.
“We need a person of integrity, someone who can be expected to restore the reputation of the association, which has undoubtedly been lost,” Neuendorf told reporters.
Apology and Investor Plan
Infantino opened the meeting by apologising to his council colleagues for blindsiding them and creating a furore over his private investor plan with Joshua Kushner. Media reports revealed the plan nine days after the World Cup final in July.
“He said that with some contrition,” Hewitt said.
Legal Action
UEFA has also asked courts in the United States for the right to obtain evidence for a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland. The court filings allege possible mismanagement of FIFA finances in the value he placed on the intended subsidiary that would run tournament commercial rights.
That subsidiary was to be at least 20% owned by investors led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.