Fifa says Infantino will stay as president after Rabat crisis meeting, despite apologies and resignation calls

Fifa confirmed on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, that Gianni Infantino will remain president following a crisis meeting in Rabat, Morocco, with the organization’s secretary general and management board. The meeting came after days of turmoil over Infantino’s now-abandoned plan to sell 21% of Fifa’s commercial rights to private investors, a scheme known internally as the Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal.

According to a Fifa statement, Infantino has sent written apologies to the Fifa council and all 211 member associations for failing to consult them before pushing the sell-off plan. The statement said Fifa’s secretary general, Mattias Grafström, and the management board present in Rabat “reaffirmed their full support” for Infantino as the only official elected by the member associations, and that Infantino in turn expressed support for Grafström and the administration. Fifa acknowledged “mistakes made” and said the council and member associations should not have been made to feel excluded from the process, adding that internal communication and processes “can and should always be continuously improved.”

What triggered the crisis

Infantino spent Wednesday in talks with Grafström and Fifa’s chief legal officer, Emilio García Silvero, after the private equity plan was scrapped in the face of a backlash led by Uefa and the North American confederation Concacaf, both of which are now demanding a review of Fifa’s governance. The Portugal great Luís Figo publicly called the sell-off proposal “the lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested behaviour” he had witnessed, and in a Daily Mail column urged Infantino to resign, saying he had “lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest.” Figo, a Uefa football adviser since 2017, also pointed to reports that the deal would have raised Infantino’s salary to $30m a year as evidence he was unfit to continue.

Jordan Football Association president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein had separately accused Fifa of blackmail, alleging the organization threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation unless it backed Infantino’s re-election bid. Arsène Wenger, Fifa’s chief of global football development, issued a statement distancing himself from the plan, calling the decision to withdraw it “absolutely necessary and beyond question.”

Political fallout

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he has “no confidence” in Infantino’s leadership, calling the failed sell-off scheme something that “should be fatal” to his position. Carney is described as close to Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, who is being urged to challenge Infantino in Fifa’s presidential election next March — an election that, like this week’s crisis meeting, is scheduled to take place in Rabat. Montagliani has not yet said whether he will run, though Concacaf members have signaled some are ready to withdraw support for Infantino.

What Fifa says happens next

Despite the apologies, Fifa’s statement made clear the organization “will not tolerate further criticisms of its governance.” Infantino is set to travel to Colombia on Thursday to attend the inauguration of new president Abelardo de la Espriella in Cali, a trip seen as a signal he intends to continue his duties as normal. Uefa is reported to still be searching for a candidate to run against him in the March presidential election.

Sources

• Yahoo Sports
• The Guardian
• The Guardian (2)

Featured photo: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)