Thursday’s Infantino apology was the first thing his critics had asked for, and the cheapest thing he had to give. In the same meeting, FIFA presented the $25 million each member association had been waiting for. The angle comes from FIFA’s statement after the Council meeting in Zurich.
FIFA’s ruling Council met in Zurich on Thursday for three and a half hours, and Gianni Infantino said sorry. According to FIFA’s own statement, he apologised for “the mistakes made in relation to the withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal”, the plan to sell a stake of at least 20 per cent in a subsidiary running FIFA’s tournament commercial rights to private investors. The plan surfaced in media reports nine days after the World Cup final in July and was dropped soon after. The Council has now permanently withdrawn it. The FA chair Debbie Hewitt, a FIFA vice-president, said he apologised “with some contrition”.
The critics did not come for an apology. They came for documents, and they did not get them. Infantino provided no documents on the $4.2 billion sell-off plan and asked members to submit their questions in writing instead. Bernd Neuendorf, the German federation president and one of eight UEFA delegates on the 37-member Council, said afterwards: “No satisfactory answers were provided.” Hewitt went further: “The man has to answer those questions, and if he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he’s not fit to be FIFA president.” UEFA wants him gone before or at the March election, and has asked US courts for evidence to support a criminal complaint against him in Switzerland. FIFA’s lawyers have called the filings a “smear campaign”.
Then the meeting turned to money, and the mood of the statement changed. FIFA presented a proposed development fund of $6.35 billion for 2027 to 2030, more than double the level previously planned, including $25 million for each member association — a figure that still has to be finalised by the Council in December and approved by Congress in March. Infantino framed it as a record of his decade in charge: “from USD 1 million per FIFA Member Association to USD 25 million each”. He added a line written for the people who vote: “FIFA’s money, including its reserves, belongs to the 211 FIFA Member Associations.” When we first reported the $25 million figure on Wednesday, it came from a document seen by the Associated Press. On Thursday it came from FIFA itself.
This is the shape of the contest now. The Infantino apology was addressed to his critics, and it cost him nothing to give: no document changed hands, no decision was reversed that had not already been reversed in July. The $25 million is addressed to the electorate, and it is the most expensive thing on the table. The critics wanted accountability and got contrition. The members wanted money and got a number. Only one of those groups chooses the president.
The arithmetic still favours the man with the number. When the AP counted endorsements earlier this month, Infantino had 87 federations against 49 opposed, with 75 undecided, and he needs 106 to win. The opposition’s base is strong in Europe, but Europe has only 55 votes. Africa has 54, and on Thursday the Mauritanian Council member Ahmed Yahya said Infantino is “the right person to continue leading football”. As we argued when we priced the vote, a federation treasurer reads a funding plan more closely than a governance complaint.
What the critics still lack is a candidate. Arsène Wenger, Luís Figo and Michele Kang have all been mentioned, but none has declared. Nominations close on 18 November. The funding plan goes back to the Council in Doha on 16 December and needs final approval at the 77th FIFA Congress in March 2027, the same Congress that will elect the president in Rabat on 18 March. A challenger who declares in November will be running against a man who has apologised for the past and put a price on the future.
None of this settles the election. Written questions can still be answered badly, the legal case in Switzerland has not run its course, and an apology can be followed by another revelation. But Thursday showed which argument each side is making. The critics are asking who Infantino is. Infantino is telling 211 federations what they could be paid. Unless someone declares by 18 November, nobody will be asking the members what they want instead.
Sources: FIFA (official Council statement), Associated Press (via KSAT), Al Jazeera, Sky Sports.
