Confederation of African Football head Patrice Motsepe on Thursday said that the future of FIFA's embattled president Gianni Infantino should be decided via election. Multiple world football federations have recently withdrawn their support for his leadership of football's governing body over his aborted plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
Issued on: 13/08/2026
Confederation of African Football chief Patrice Motsepe says Gianni Infantino's future should only be decided by elections after Ireland became the latest federation to withdraw their support for the embattled FIFA president.
Infantino is fighting to save his job after a barrage of criticism for his aborted plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
The governing bodies of European football (UEFA), North and Central America (CONCACAF) and Asia (AFC) stepped up the pressure on Infantino in a joint letter this week, declaring "trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority".
It is believed they want Infantino to resign before he has the chance to seek re-election in March next year.
But Motsepe, a FIFA vice-president and CAF president, is adamant Infantino's fate should be decided through the ballot box.
"If anybody has got any problem against anybody, whether it's Gianni, whether it is anybody else, follow the process, follow the FIFA process, simple as that," Motsepe told Sky News on Thursday.
"If you want to take him out, go for elections; let the 211 member associations decide. Do that and the vote will express whether they've got confidence in him or not."
"You've got to be very careful. There are elections taking place next year. Shouldn't we allow that process to continue?"
Motsepe was in Salzburg at the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday to hold talks with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, whose organisation are threatening to boycott the World Cup and Club World Cup in protest at Infantino's scheme.
"I've heard so many stories about various issues and am careful to pass judgement on anything," Motsepe said.
"Everybody has a right to be heard. Let's have a hearing, and a proper forum."
CAF had already backed Infantino and Motsepe claimed there was no breach of rules over the World Cup sell-off talks, because the proposals would be submitted to FIFA members for final approval.
"There's a lot that's problematic and negative that they have to fix," Motsepe said.
"But he has apologised and said maybe there's a different way these things should have been done, but we also take advice."
However, there has been no end to the tidal wave of criticism engulfing Infantino.
And on Thursday the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) become the latest FIFA member to withdraw its support for Infantino.
The English FA and Welsh FA had already withdrawn their backing for the 56-year-old Swiss.
"Following an FAI Board Meeting, the decision was taken to rescind the letter of support that the Association supplied earlier this year," the organisation said.
"It has since written to FIFA to explain its reasoning. The Association is grateful for the support that FIFA provides to Irish football, but recent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
White House official: Infantino's critics need to 'get head examined'
14.08.2026, DPA
Under-fire FIFA president Gianni Infantino has taken the governing body to a “whole new level” which has left his critics “jealous”, according to Andrew Giuliani, who was executive director for the White House Task Force on the 2026 World Cup.
New Zealand’s football federation became the latest organization to withdraw its support for the Infantino’s re-election next year as he continues to lose global support over his aborted plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors.
European governing body UEFA, the North and Central American confederation CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had already made it clear Infantino had lost their confidence, while a number of individual associations – including England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland – have also confirmed they will not back the president.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and South American governing body CONMEBOL have, though, both endorsed Infantino to win a fourth presidential term at the FIFA Congress in March.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has warned FIFA would be making a “terrible mistake” if it got rid of Infantino.
Giuliani – son of former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – claimed anyone who wanted Infantino removed “needs to get their head examined”.
“It’s politics. I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted President Trump from a political perspective. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted other people,” Giuliani told The Athletic.
“People are jealous when people are very high achievers – and what Gianni Infantino has done for FIFA is he’s taken them to a whole new level that probably they didn’t think was possible.
“You’ve got to remember, this is the first World Cup that Gianni Infantino was president for landing, right? He inherited the Russia and Qatar World Cups, and did a good job with those, but this is the first one. It’s his vision on this.
“What I’ll tell you is that for any soccer confederation or football federation president who is thinking about not voting for Gianni Infantino, it would probably be one of the most foolish decisions of your professional life.
“This guy literally just put on the largest global sporting event ever without any incident, making over four times the revenue of the last World Cup, and you’re thinking of ousting him.
“If Gianni Infantino doesn’t get re-elected unanimously, then whoever voted against him needs to get their head examined.”
Infantino apologized for his proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company to run the commercial and operational aspects of FIFA’s tournaments, with an idea to sell off around 20% to private investors – including a company headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The proposal was scrapped and Giuliani added: “Look, we are all human beings, and I think it’s one of those things where sport has become monetised and commercialised.
“I would just say that you have got to look at Gianni’s full body of work and to also realize that he’s always trying to improve his organisation, and I think that’s the thing.
“Just because you’re always trying to improve doesn’t mean that you’re not going to take a misstep here or there, right? As a human being, it happens, but I would look at the body of work and say this is the guy I would want leading.”
No comments:
Post a Comment