Gianni Infantino apologized to his toughest critics Thursday but offered no new details or documents on the FIFA issues that concern them most at a showdown meeting of the ruling council in Zurich.
There were no documents about the $4.2 billion World Cup sell-off plan that Infantino launched and dropped in July. There were also no details about the Folarin Balogun red card case at the World Cup or about how U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to help the national team advance.
FIFA will, however, review whether to continue awarding the peace prize that was created to give to Trump last December.
Council Pressed for Evidence
Pressed by European football officials for written evidence about his secretive private equity plan for the World Cup, which provoked a global rift, Infantino asked them to submit written questions, FIFA vice president Debbie Hewitt said after the 3½-hour meeting.
“The man has to answer those questions. If he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he is not fit to be the FIFA president,” said Hewitt, who leads the English Football Association.
European football’s ruling body UEFA is leading attempts to remove Infantino before or at the FIFA presidential election in March, and the meeting did little to change that view. “No satisfactory answers were provided,” said German leader Bernd Neuendorf, one of eight UEFA delegates on the 37-member FIFA Council that Infantino chairs. The council had not met since Infantino provoked the crisis.
“We need a person of integrity, someone who can be expected to restore the reputation of the association, which has undoubtedly been lost,” Neuendorf told reporters.
Apology and Legal Action
Infantino opened the meeting by apologizing to council colleagues for blindsiding them and creating a furor over his private investor plan with Joshua Kushner, which was revealed in media reports nine days after the World Cup final in July. “He said that with some contrition,” Hewitt said.
UEFA has also asked courts in the United States for the right to obtain evidence for a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland. The court filings allege possible mismanagement of FIFA finances in the value Infantino placed on the intended subsidiary running tournament commercial rights. That subsidiary was to be at least 20% owned by investors led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.