hit back<\/a> on Saturday, claiming \u201ca concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine\u201d football\u2019s governing body and Infantino.<\/p>\nHowever, Monday\u2019s letter from the governing bodies of European football (UEFA), North and Central America (CONCACAF) and Asia (AFC), showed his critics were unbowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding \u2013 or demanding \u2013 power to be held,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned,\u201d the confederations added.<\/p>\n
The three confederations called for a fully \u2060independent review into the stake sale proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball\u2019s strength has \u2060always been its unity,\u201d the statement concluded. \u201cWe call for that unity to \u200cbe honoured now, for leadership that serves football, not \u200cseeks \u200cto command it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The football federations of the United States and Canada \u2013 two of the 2026 World Cup host nations \u2013 on Monday backed the statement from the three confederations.<\/p>\n
US Soccer, Canada Soccer, the CFU (Caribbean Football Union) and UNCAF (Central American Football Union) said they \u201cstand together, along with our colleagues around the world, in calling for meaningful change that strengthens FIFA\u2019s governance, transparency and accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n
That puts the US and Canada at odds with the third cohost of this year\u2019s World Cup, Mexico, which has given Infantino its backing.<\/p>\n
The confederations also criticised a FIFA emergency meeting in Morocco last week, saying there was only one elected official present, while also calling for an independent review which FIFA would have \u2060no role in, to determine what led to this \u201cprofound failure of judgement\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) President \u2060Lise Klaveness, seen by some as a potential candidate to replace Infantino, called on the 56-year-old to step down from the presidency immediately. Klaveness has long been an outspoken critic of Infantino.<\/p>\n
After quelling in-house dissent at the emergency meeting on Wednesday, FIFA apologised to the 211 federations and Infantino rallied his support among the six confederations that \u2060make up the world governing body.<\/p>\n
Africa\u2019s confederation CAF released a statement on behalf of its 54 members backing Infantino on Thursday, with CONCACAF member Mexico following suit, along with South American countries Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia.<\/p>\n
On Friday, as Infantino attended the inauguration of Colombia\u2019s new President Abelardo De La Espriella \u2060in Cali, FIFA released a blistering attack on the president\u2019s critics, saying attempts to challenge his leadership must follow the governing body\u2019s statutes and democratic procedures.<\/p>\n
FIFA also echoed the statements of several of the bodies that supported Infantino, as well as one from South American confederation CONMEBOL.<\/p>\n
FIFA\u2019s \u200cstatement came after reports by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain about payments made by UEFA to a former female employee during Infantino\u2019s time as the European governing body\u2019s general secretary, allegations he has denied and that FIFA has rejected as unfounded.<\/p>\n
Almost 70 of FIFA\u2019s 211-member associations have said publicly they will \u200cvote \u200cfor Infantino, with about a dozen either withdrawing previously promised support or saying they will not vote for him.<\/p>\n
UEFA apart, the confederations that say they have lost confidence in Infantino are not completely united, with several Asian nations backing him, as well as Mexico from CONCACAF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three confederations release letter criticising FIFA\u2019s president over his proposal to sell off stakes in the World Cup.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,2057,596,44,588,85,6221],"class_list":["post-850468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}