FA set to follow Welsh FA and withdraw support for Infantino

The Football Association is set to withdraw support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

The FA is to write to Infantino to withdraw a previous letter supporting his re-election in what is a sign of the co-ordinated approach Europe is taking to remove him from office as quickly as possible.

It follows the Welsh FA becoming the first football association to officially withdraw support for Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president.

Many more letters and announcements are likely in the next few hours and days and it is all designed to put maximum pressure on Infantino.

So far, Infantino has shown no sign of being ready to resign in disgrace and he has been trying to shore up his position by asking for support from the federations who still back him – mostly in Africa, Asia and South America.

Even if Infantino does manage to survive in the short term, he is now almost certain to face at least one challenger at the FIFA presidential election in Morocco in March.

The FA will have questions to answer about why it decided to send Infantino a letter of support in the first place. Its position was complicated by the fact that, for all his faults, Infantino was set to be the only candidate and it may have felt that it suited its own interests to continue supporting him.

FA chair and FIFA vice-president Debbie Hewitt was pictured handing Infantino an England shirt with his name on the back before England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina in Atlanta in July.

Wales withdraws support for FIFA president Infantino’s re-election

Wales became the first football association to officially withdraw support for Gianni Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president.

It follows the loss of confidence in Infantino’s leadership after the botched attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup.

The Football Association of Wales told Sky News it “hereby confirms its withdrawal of support for the candidature of Mr Gianni Infantino, for re-election as FIFA president for the 2027-2031 term”.

“The recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football,” it added.

“Failing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept.”

The Football Association of Wales has written to FIFA about its position on its chief.

‘Rapid fall from grace’

It is a rapid fall from grace for Infantino two weeks after he was handing out the World Cup to Spain in New Jersey.

The Welsh FA’s statement is part of a concerted effort by European football to bring down Infantino following 10 years in power, after vowing to hold those responsible for the World Cup sell-off plan to account. It is anticipated a stream of other FAs will follow Wales in order to pile the pressure on Infantino to leave power without having to force a vote of no confidence.

‘His presidency has imploded’

Infantino had planned to seek re-election next year, but his presidency has imploded.

UEFA has criticised “secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game” and said it was devising a plan “to make sure that it cannot occur again” with no option off the table.

Wales holds one of the eight votes on the International Football Association Board, which sets the laws of the sport and hosted Infantino for the annual meeting in February.

‘UEFA wants Infantino to pay for his latest error of judgment with his job’

Sky Sports News chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol:

European football associations are starting to withdraw the letters of support they had sent backing Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president.

Infantino had received more than 200 letters of support from FIFA’s 211 associations – including 52 of the 55 who make up UEFA.

All that changed last week when UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments in protest at Infantino’s plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors.

Wales has become the first association to officially withdraw support for Infantino.

Infantino was forced to abandon his sell-off plan in the early hours of Saturday morning and UEFA wants him to pay for his latest error of judgment with his job.

The first step towards achieving that aim is a coordinated withdrawal of letters of supporting his re-election.

European football leaders have a variety of options to increase the pressure on Infantino. European members of the FIFA Council can attempt to call an emergency meeting of the Council or an emergency FIFA Congress.

They can also find and back a unity candidate to challenge Infantino in next March’s presidential election – if he survives that long.

Infantino is refusing to give up without a fight and he has been encouraging his supporters – especially in Asia, Africa and South America to release statements declaring they still have faith in him.

What were FIFA’s World Cup plans?

Under the initial proposal to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), football’s world governing body aimed to raise up to $4.2bn (£3.1bn) from external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, which it said would be valued at around $20bn (£15bn).

The governing body said its plans – which would have required approval from member associations – could deliver more than $10bn in “football development funding” over the next four years.

Who could replace Infantino?

Sky Sports News chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol:

There’s been talk about the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, one of the most powerful men in world football, who is on the UEFA executive committee. But my understanding is that he is not interested in replacing Infantino.

Other candidates are people like Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who came second in the vote to become FIFA president 10 years ago. He’s the president of the AFC, who also oppose the sell-off plans.

Then there’s the president of CONCACAF, Victor Montagliani. We’ve just had the World Cup in three CONCACAF countries and historically, CONCACAF have been close to Infantino, but they said on Thursday that they rejected the proposal as well.

Finally, someone I think would be very popular is Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA. He has a totally different vision about the way football should be run. If he was the president of FIFA, there would be no hydration breaks, no FIFA Peace Prizes, no Qatari-owned private jets for the president, no $1m (£742,000) World Cup tickets.

But I don’t think Ceferin has ever expressed any desire or interest publicly to replace Infantino.

Perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves. Infantino is under a lot of pressure and it would be fair to say he is fighting for his job, but we are not at the stage where people are going to come out and say they are going to stand against him.

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