Infantino Apologises to FIFA Council Over Secret World Cup Sell-Off Plan

Gianni Infantino has apologised to FIFA's governing council for blindsiding its members over a scheme to sell a stake in the World Cup, but he stopped short of explaining how or why the plan was conceived in the first place. The admission came as the 37-strong council gathered in Zurich on Thursday for its first meeting since the controversy broke, with Infantino asking members to submit follow-up questions in writing ahead of their next session in December.

A Qualified Apology, Not a Full Account

The apology, combined with a promise of fuller answers down the line, appears to have been enough to steady the room for now. But it has not satisfied everyone. Debbie Hewitt, chair of the English Football Association and a FIFA vice-president, said nothing had changed her view that Infantino should step down. "I have no new information that makes me feel any differently to how I felt when I went in," she said, adding that his failure to produce documents on the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, the Folarun Balogun disciplinary episode, and the Trump peace prize was "disappointing."

Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German Football Association, went further, calling for Infantino's departure as part of a broader governance overhaul. "The whole governance has to be reformed. But I'm pretty clear this is not possible with Gianni as the person responsible for it at FIFA," he said. Neuendorf also questioned the substance of the apology itself, noting that Infantino appeared sorry for a lack of communication rather than for the project itself.

Europe Isolated as the Rest of the World Backs Infantino

The FFE proposal, first reported in late July, triggered anger across the Asian, European and North and Central American confederations, all frustrated at not being consulted. For many European federations already unsettled by Infantino's decision to award Donald Trump a peace prize and his contentious intervention in Balogun's suspended ban, the sell-off plan was the latest in a string of grievances that plunged FIFA into one of its deepest crises in a decade.

Yet that narrative has not translated into global consensus. Ahmed Yahya, FIFA Council member and president of the Mauritanian Football Federation, said plainly: "The majority want Gianni Infantino to stay." He pointed to Thursday's approval of a dramatic increase in development funding - a four-year, $6.35billion distribution to confederations and member associations, with each national federation set to receive $25million annually - as evidence of tangible progress under Infantino's leadership.

UEFA's Uphill Search for a Challenger

With Infantino still the only credible name on the ballot for the March 2027 presidential election, UEFA faces a narrowing window to field an alternative before the November 18 candidacy deadline. Names such as Arsene Wenger and Lise Klaveness have circulated, but neither has shown appetite for a run, while CONCACAF's Victor Montagliani and UEFA's own Aleksander Ceferin have both indicated a preference for continuing in their current roles.

Hewitt described the meeting's tone as the most constructive of her three years on the council, praising Infantino's willingness to let members speak. Still, she was unequivocal about what comes next: "He has to answer those questions and if he doesn't answer them, no, he's not fit to be FIFA president." UEFA, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with legal action against FIFA and FFE's backers in Switzerland and the United States, alongside Klaveness's separate governance complaint lodged with FIFA's ethics committee.