Wales FA Withdraws Support For Infantino As FIFA President

LONDON,  Aug 3 (Bernama-PA Media/dpa) -- The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has withdrawn its support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s re-election bid over his bungled effort to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, reported PA Media/dpa.

Infantino announced last week he was shelving the widely-denounced plan that was rejected by three confederations but his decade-long tenure as FIFA president remains under intense scrutiny.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Friday that Infantino is the “wrong man” to lead FIFA, while the Football Association called for a “full and robust review” into his leadership.

Before the emergence of Infantino’s plan to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), the FAW had indicated it would support his bid to be re-elected next year. However, a statement issued by the governing body on Monday confirmed that goodwill had run out.

A FAW statement said: “The recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football.

“Failing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept.”

The English FA is also understood to have written to FIFA making it clear it no longer supports Infantino.

The governing body issued a statement on Saturday saying it “fully supported” UEFA’s position that confidence had been lost in Infantino over the FFE proposal.

UEFA said in a statement on Saturday that "no option should be off the table", leaving open the possibility that national associations could trigger a vote of no confidence in Infantino, leading to the convening of an Extraordinary FIFA Congress.

It would only require 43 associations to do that, but it is unlikely such a move would be made unless there was then a strong belief, if not certainty, that a majority among FIFA’s 211 members existed to unseat Infantino at that Congress.

CONCACAF, which represents the associations of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, also called for a “full review” of Infantino’s leadership over the weekend, with the two confederations containing 96 associations combined.

Sources have indicated to the Press Association that CONCACAF’s president Victor Montagliani, a current FIFA vice-president, would be prepared to run for football’s top position.

However, a number of African and Asian associations have issued statements supporting Infantino over the weekend, including those from Morocco, Egypt and Qatar.

-- BERNAMA-PA MEDIA/dpa