Gianni Infantino will remain Fifa president after a crisis meeting in Rabat, with the governing body saying the row over its leadership has not changed the immediate picture at the top of the organisation. The decision comes after a day of talks and ahead of a presidential election next March in Rabat.
The dispute has been building since Uefa and Concacaf called for a review of Fifa’s governance before Wednesday, following criticism linked to the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal. That plan would have sold 21% of Fifa’s commercial rights to private investors, and it has become the centre of the latest internal debate.
On Wednesday, Infantino spent the day in talks with Mattias Grafström and Emilio García Silvero before Fifa announced the outcome of the meeting that evening. The message from the organisation was clear: Infantino stays in office, and the conversation now turns to how the governing structure around him operates.
What Fifa said after the Rabat meeting
Fifa said that, following the 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, describing him as the only official elected by the 211 Fifa member associations.
The governing body also said the processes, communications and interactions between the Fifa president, the Fifa secretary general and the Fifa management board should be continuously improved in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. In other words, the leadership remains in place, but the criticism has forced a review of how it operates.
Apologies, and what happens next
Fifa also said mistakes made were acknowledged. In a separate letter to the Fifa council and Fifa member associations, an apology was made for those errors, along with a commitment to ensure they do not happen again.
The next stage is a review report that will be presented to the Fifa council. After that, attention will move on to next March, when the Fifa presidential election is scheduled to take place in Rabat. Infantino will then fly to Colombia on Thursday to attend the inauguration of Abelardo de la Espriella in Cali.
