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Wales becomes first FA to pull backing for Infantino's FIFA re-election
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NewsDesk
Original post · 3 Aug
The man who was handing out the World Cup trophy in New Jersey two weeks ago is now fighting to keep his job. And the first blow has landed from an unlikely place: Wales.
Why Wales matters here
The Football Association of Wales has become the first national body to formally pull its backing for Gianni Infantino's re-election as FIFA president for the 2027-2031 term. In a statement to Sky News, the FAW said it "hereby confirms its withdrawal of support" for his candidature.
The wording didn't hold back. The FAW pointed to "recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement," adding that Infantino has "lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football."
Wales might be small, but it carries weight where it counts. The FAW holds one of the eight votes on the International Football Association Board, the body that sets the actual laws of the game.
What set this off
The trigger was a botched plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup. Under the proposal to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), FIFA aimed to raise up to $4.2bn (£3.1bn) from external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, which it valued at around $20bn (£15bn).
FIFA argued the scheme could deliver more than $10bn in "football development funding" over four years. European football didn't buy it. UEFA blasted "secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game," and Infantino was forced to abandon the plan in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Just how far this is a fall is worth noting. Infantino had received more than 200 letters of support from FIFA's 211 associations, including 52 of the 55 that make up UEFA. Now those letters are being pulled back one by one, and Sky's chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol expects "a stream of other FAs to follow Wales."
Where this could go
European members of the FIFA Council could try to call an emergency Council meeting or an emergency FIFA Congress. They could also line up a unity candidate to challenge Infantino in next March's presidential election, assuming he's still standing by then.
A few names are floating around. There's been talk of PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, though Solhekol reckons he isn't interested. Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the AFC president who finished second to Infantino a decade ago, is another. So is CONCACAF's Victor Montagliani, whose confederation just hosted the World Cup across three of its countries but rejected the sell-off. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin would be a popular pick, but he's never publicly said he wants the job.
Infantino, for his part, isn't going quietly. He's been urging supporters, especially in Asia, Africa and South America, to put out statements backing him.
The takeaway for fans
There's no betting market being flagged here, so this one is a straight governance story rather than a wager angle. But it matters for anyone who follows the game: the sale of a World Cup stake is dead for now, and the man who runs the sport is suddenly on the back foot after 10 years in power.
As Solhekol put it, we may be getting ahead of ourselves, and no one has yet stepped up to say they'll stand against Infantino. But the pressure is real, and Wales just made the first public move.
Sources:
We'll fold any fallout from this into the UK casino sites thread as it develops.
Why Wales matters here
The Football Association of Wales has become the first national body to formally pull its backing for Gianni Infantino's re-election as FIFA president for the 2027-2031 term. In a statement to Sky News, the FAW said it "hereby confirms its withdrawal of support" for his candidature.
The wording didn't hold back. The FAW pointed to "recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement," adding that Infantino has "lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football."
Wales might be small, but it carries weight where it counts. The FAW holds one of the eight votes on the International Football Association Board, the body that sets the actual laws of the game.
What set this off
The trigger was a botched plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup. Under the proposal to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), FIFA aimed to raise up to $4.2bn (£3.1bn) from external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, which it valued at around $20bn (£15bn).
FIFA argued the scheme could deliver more than $10bn in "football development funding" over four years. European football didn't buy it. UEFA blasted "secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game," and Infantino was forced to abandon the plan in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Just how far this is a fall is worth noting. Infantino had received more than 200 letters of support from FIFA's 211 associations, including 52 of the 55 that make up UEFA. Now those letters are being pulled back one by one, and Sky's chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol expects "a stream of other FAs to follow Wales."
Where this could go
European members of the FIFA Council could try to call an emergency Council meeting or an emergency FIFA Congress. They could also line up a unity candidate to challenge Infantino in next March's presidential election, assuming he's still standing by then.
A few names are floating around. There's been talk of PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, though Solhekol reckons he isn't interested. Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the AFC president who finished second to Infantino a decade ago, is another. So is CONCACAF's Victor Montagliani, whose confederation just hosted the World Cup across three of its countries but rejected the sell-off. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin would be a popular pick, but he's never publicly said he wants the job.
Infantino, for his part, isn't going quietly. He's been urging supporters, especially in Asia, Africa and South America, to put out statements backing him.
The takeaway for fans
There's no betting market being flagged here, so this one is a straight governance story rather than a wager angle. But it matters for anyone who follows the game: the sale of a World Cup stake is dead for now, and the man who runs the sport is suddenly on the back foot after 10 years in power.
As Solhekol put it, we may be getting ahead of ourselves, and no one has yet stepped up to say they'll stand against Infantino. But the pressure is real, and Wales just made the first public move.
Sources:
We'll fold any fallout from this into the UK casino sites thread as it develops.
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