PREVIEW
Five of seven African votes on the FIFA Council are propping up the embattled president but a UEFA boycott could push him out
Gianni Infantino is discovering the value of the African patronage networks that he has spent a decade building as President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). For now, he is being propped up by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that controls 54 of FIFA's 211 votes and has benefited handsomely from his Forward funding scheme. In the face of determined European opposition, his tactics say as much about shifting global power as they do about football. The African and Latin American voting blocs could prove critical to Infantino’s survival as FIFA President.
A showdown is looming with the 55 members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) determined to push him out. Infantino’s scrapping of his scheme to privatise FIFA’s commercial rights in the face of overwhelming objections hasn’t pacified the European federations.
And fresh claims that when Infantino was general secretary of UEFA (2009-2016) he agreed a six-figure sum in euros as a severance package for a female employee with whom he had been having an affair, have intensified the pressure. On 8 August, some of Infantino’s colleagues categorically denied the story, insisting that the employee’s severance package was in line with standard procedures.
As pressure has been growing, Swiss-Italian Infantino has decamped to Rabat, promising Morocco that the final of the 2030 World Cup will be held in its newest hi-tech stadium. In a symbol of Afro-European sporting cooperation, Morocco is due to co-host the tournament with Portugal and Spain. Infantino’s next test will come in September when the Women's Under-20 World Cup kicks off in Poland next month. UEFA says it will boycott the tournament if Infantino refuses to stand down.
Last week, some of its senior figures met with Infantino, CAF’s executive committee last week confirmed its support for him. Five of the seven African countries on the FIFA Council – Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Mauritania and Comoros – are supporting him. African football administrators became increasingly powerful during the presidency of Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who ramped up funding and brought the World Cup to South Africa in 2010 (AC Vol 50 No 25, Ready or not, here they come). Infantino also has support from the South American federation.
FIFA's Forward programme, a funding scheme Infantino introduced in 2016 building on Blatter’s initiatives, has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars to African federations to fund grassroots football projects.
Leader of South Africa’s populist Patriotic Alliance and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie posted on social media that ‘Africa should be cautious in joining the public lynching of Infantino. He has been very good to African football,’ adding that Infantino’s main opponents were seeking a return to the ‘old status quo’.
The ‘old status quo’ was dominated by the Union of European Football Associations. Europe hosted 10 of the first 18 World Cups, but has only hosted it once since 2006. The big test is likely to be March's presidential election in Morocco, when Infantino will seek a fourth term that could last until 2031. He has already promised the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that it would host the World Cup in 2034.
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