FIFA president Gianni Infantino suffered a crushing blow yesterday when a bold gambit for private equity participation in the football World Cup collapsed in the face of a ferocious backlash that included CONCACAF of which Guyana is part.
A FIFA statement, attributed to Infantino, conceded that the proposal to create a commercial entity to run the World Cup and other tournaments, 20% of which would be sold to private investors, was divisive and not viable.
Reuters said that the concession ended three days of civil war in the football world which peaked when Europe’s UEFA, the richest and most influential of soccer’s six regional confederations, vowed a boycott of all FIFA events until the proposal was dropped.
The plan was Infantino’s and its collapse less than two weeks after the most profitable World Cup in history has left the 56-year-old Swiss administrator isolated at the top of an organisation he had been planning to run for another 4-1/2 years, Reuters said.
“A week ago, Infantino’s riding high and was almost certain to get elected overwhelmingly because he’s run against such a financially successful tournament,” Victor Matheson, professor of economics at the College Of The Holy Cross in Massachusetts, told Reuters. “That’s all in jeopardy now.”
Before the World Cup, Infantino’s re-election for a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March had looked like a shoo-in with no rival candidates in the frame.
The picture has shifted dramatically after three days during which even the most loyal confederations revolted over the lack of consultation over the proposal, and Infantino faced accusations of selling the soul of the game.
After FIFA stood by its position yesterday with a statement that underlined the promise of millions of dollars of new funding for national federations, some of those closest to Infantino dissociated themselves from it.
Senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro quit in protest calling it “a bad deal for football”, while FIFA Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour alleged staff had been “deceived” by Infantino and described the proposal as a “project of one person”.
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