FIFA executives back embattled president Gianni Infantino after FFE fiasco
· Yahoo Sports
Top FIFA executives, including secretary general Mattias Grafström, have reaffirmed their support for embattled president Gianni Infantino, the soccer governing body said in a news release Wednesday, Aug. 5.
The group was convened after Infantino's plan to sell shares of the World Cup to private investors was shelved after backlash from both soccer stakeholders, fans and political groups around the world. UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, threatened a boycott of FIFA. Concacaf, the governing body for the sport in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and the Asian Football Confederation both announced they, too, rejected the scheme.
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That threw Infantino's continuity into question, and members of the FIFA Management Board were summoned to Morocco for meetings about the organization's future.
Those meetings have resulted in Infantino retaining the support of the organization's decision-makers, according to a statement put out by FIFA.
"Following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the FIFA Secretary General and members of the FIFA Management Board in attendance reaffirmed their full support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 FIFA Member Associations," the statement read. "In turn, the FIFA President reiterated his full support for the FIFA Secretary General and the FIFA Administration for their necessary and outstanding work in the delivery of his vision."
The statement comes just a day after a letter from Grafström to FIFA staff in which he wrote that "individuals come and go" became public. He also called Infantino's plan to sell shares in the World Cup to private investors a “sad and reproachable series of events” in the letter.
Yet, Grafström was back by Infantino's side both figuratively and literally Wednesday, Aug. 5, sitting next to the president at a Women's African Cup of Nations match
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