Infantino apologises to FIFA over the World Cup privatisation project

In the FIFA council meeting held yesterday in Zurich, Gianni Infantino tried to mend internal tensions after the controversy over the project, later abandoned, to open the World Cup to private investment.

Official apologies and promises of clarification

Facing the 37 members of the executive, the president said: "We apologise for the mistakes made in the handling and communication of this project". Infantino explained that the initiative aimed to increase the resources to be distributed to affiliated federations.

The proposal, which emerged at the beginning of August, had already sparked strong opposition between UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Confederation, concerned about possible repercussions on the management model of international competitions.

Debby Hewitt, president of the English Football Association, lamented the lack of concrete answers: "We have not received any response to our specific requests". Also Bernd Neuendorf, head of the German federation, stated: "We have raised many critical questions, but from my point of view there have been no satisfactory answers. Trust has been compromised".

Infantino promised to later send written clarifications to the Council members. Some officials, such as Ahmed Yahya, president of the Mauritanian federation, defended the original intentions of the project.

In the meantime FIFA has approved an increase of its development plan to €5.66 billion for the next four years; if confirmed by the December Congress, each of the 211 affiliated federations could receive up to $25 million.