Zurich, Oct 16 (AFP/GNA) ā FIFA president Gianni Infantino gave “no satisfactory answers” when grilled Thursday during a meeting to discuss his attempts to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, senior members of football’s global governing body said, but he did offer an apology for the failed project.
“We asked a great many critical questions, but there were no satisfactory answers from my point of view,” said Bernd Neuendorf, the head of the German Football Association (DFB), who is also a member of the FIFA Council.
Neuendorf was speaking after the Council met behind closed doors at the body’s Zurich headquarters, where Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal was one of the main topics on the agenda.
Infantino has been under severe pressure since his announcement in late July that he wanted to open FIFA’s premium competitions such as the World Cup to private investors.
That plan was ultimately abandoned in the face of widespread criticism, with a rebellion led by European governing body UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF, which runs the sport in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
“I apologised for the mistakes that we made in relation to the communication and consultation process related to the FIFA Forward Enterprise project,” Infantino said in a video published by FIFA.
“But what is important to remember is that it was a proposal, so in no way a done deal, just a proposal, that actually intended to enable FIFA to invest more in our member associations.”
However, the FIFA chief reaffirmed that the FFE initiative “has been permanently withdrawn and will not reappear in any form”.
Infantino has headed FIFA since 2016 and is running for re-election next March, despite calls for him to stand down in the wake of the FFE plan.
For the moment, no heavyweight candidate has put themselves forward to run against him.
GNA/Credit: AFP