FIFA rubbishes report of prez Infantino reaching out to Trump govt to save his job

ZURICH: FIFA has rubbished reports that its president, Gianni Infantino, has approached US President Donald Trump and his administration to save his job as pressure mounts on him to step down after a controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan aiming to bring private involvement in the FIFA World Cup and other FIFA competitions.

Trouble has been looming over the FIFA presidency of Infantino ever since the announcement of establishing the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) on Tuesday, to bring together the sale of FIFA’s commercial rights, right from broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing, with the operational delivery of its tournaments. Under this proposal, FIFA was to raise up to $4.2 billion (3.1 billion pounds) via external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE.

This move generated a lot of concern and anger from the football fraternity, particularly UEFA, who felt that the sport, particularly its showpiece event, the FIFA World Cup, was being put for sale. UEFA, the governing body of European football, on Thursday also said its member associations have unanimously voted to boycott the FIFA World Cup and all other FIFA competitions in protest against FIFA’s plan to sell stakes in a subsidiary that will manage the global governing body’s tournaments.

After facing the wrath from various quarters in world football, FIFA went on to drop its plans of establishing FFE. But nonetheless, Infantino continues to face anger from world football, with the FA (Football Association) in England set to withdraw support for his re-election to the top post, after the Football Association of Wales had become the first football association to do so.

The New York Post, as quoted by Goal.com, had confirmed that Infantino had turned to the Trump administration as he battles to retain his presidency. But as per Fox News, as quoted by Goal.com, a FIFA source insisted that there was no contact done or scheduled between Infantino and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio or any other member of Trump administration, be it on Monday or for the future.

On Monday, the New York Post had reported as quoted by Goal.com, that the FIFA president was due to hold a conversation with Rubio as pressure mounted on him after his failed move to sell FIFA’s commercial activity to private parties. The purpose of the talks, as per the newspaper, was to discuss how football could be a “soft power” source for US. One source described the conversation as a means to shore up some support for his re-election.

The source had told the newspaper, “He (Infantino) wanted to reach out to the Secretary and talk about how football could be a form of soft power for America, but we all know it is about protecting the position. It is not about anything else at this stage.”

However, FIFA’s source, to Fox News, has denied any contact made or scheduled with Rubio and with anyone in the Trump administration. The world’s football government has not offered any official statement either on claims of Infantino trying to reach out to Trump.

Meanwhile, UEFA is considering the possibility of taking legal action against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his FIFA World Cup sell-off plan through the FIFA Forward Enterprise and has warned him not to destroy any documents related to the plan that invited plenty of wrath from various quarters of world football, sources told ESPN.

As per ESPN, the governing body of European football has also written to Joshua Kushner, Greg Maffei, JP Morgan and Open Economics, informing them that a legal action is being considered over their association with the proposal that now stands withdrawn. ESPN has seen a letter addressed to Infantino, a formal written request to stop the destruction of evidence to ensure that documents related to the plan and the entire controversy around it will be retained in case a legal action is needed. ESPN has also reached out to FIFA for a comment.

Infantino had proposed the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise, a 20 billion company to run the FIFA World Cup with private involvement, including the Kushner family. After the proposal was reported on Tuesday, it invited immense wrath and concerns from world football, notably UEFA, FA (Football Association), CONCACAF (the governing body for football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Following this, Infantino scrapped the proposal to sell the WC stakes after this backlash. Prior to his announcement, UEFA’s 55 member nations had agreed to boycott the World Cup and the other FIFA competitions on Thursday as a mark of protest, saying, “some things are simply too important to sell”.

Also, two senior FIFA officials criticised the plan, with one handing in his resignation from the post of presidential adviser and a second saying staff members were deceived by the project. The collapse of Infantino’s project has thrown his re-election to the top post in the world football governing body under doubt, with elections set for March next year in Morocco. (ANI)