Infantino calls an emergency meeting

Gianni Infantino, president of the FIFA, has summoned the senior officials of the organization he directs to a meeting in Rabat this Wednesday after the crisis generated by his failed intention to create a subsidiary to market the final phase of the World Cup, according to Sky Sports.

Infantino has called the meeting after he was forced to withdraw his plan to create ‘FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)’, a company in charge of managing the commercial and operational aspects of FIFA tournaments.

Reverse

Last Friday Infantino announced that the entity is abandoning its intention to create said subsidiary to market the final phase of the World Cup.

“After listening carefully to all opinions, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of such a nature that, regardless of the level of support, they no longer benefit the initially stated objective,” FIFA stated in a press release.

Three days earlier, FIFA announced its intention to sell 20% of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), the new subsidiary it was seeking to create to manage the organization’s commercial operations and events, such as the World Cup, its main product.

Threat

The project immediately received a blow with the refusal of UEFA, whose teams have won 13 of the World Cups held since 1930. The European body warned that its national federations would not participate in FIFA competitions if the proposal was maintained.

Concacaf also joined UEFA’s intentions the day before, while last Friday Conmebol affirmed the start of “a consultation process” among its members and assured that “Football comes first.”

FIFA’s head of global football development, Arsene Wenger the secretary general, Mattias Grafstrom; and the prince Ali, president of the Jordanian Football Federation, made clear their opposition to the initiative of Infantino, who was in Morocco last week.

Wenger stated today in a statement released through FIFA that ruling out the plan was “absolutely necessary and unquestionable”, while Grafstrom rated the last week as “a series of sad and reprehensible events” in an internal email addressed to FIFA staff.

For his part, Prince Ali accused FIFA of creating a situation that “amounts to blackmail” in relation to unpaid awards and support for Infantino’s re-election.