{"id":864656,"date":"2026-08-22T18:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864656\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T18:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:32:13","slug":"gianni-infantino-angers-concacaf-nations-by-hijacking-caribbean-football-union-meeting-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864656\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino angers Concacaf nations by hijacking Caribbean Football Union meeting | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Gianni Infantino has angered many of the Concacaf nations, whose support he is seeking in his re-election campaign, by hijacking a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to announce Fifa-funded development projects for the region with millions of dollars that had been delayed for months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Multiple sources attending the CFU meeting in the Dominican Republic said many of the Concacaf members were infuriated by Infantino\u2019s behaviour, particularly as he had been asked to stay away by their president, Victor Montagliani.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-2\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">Kick off your evenings with the Guardian&#8217;s take on the world of football<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782314652_139_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-2\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Concacaf position echoes previous complaints about Fifa\u2019s operations from the Jordan FA, whose president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, accused Infantino of bribery this month when he claimed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/aug\/04\/arsene-wenger-gianni-infantino-grafstrom-criticise-world-cup-plan-fifa\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they have not received prize money<\/a> from last year\u2019s Arab Cup due to the country\u2019s failure to endorse the president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">As reported by the Guardian, Infantino appears to have seen the CFU meeting as an opportunity to lobby for election votes among Caribbean countries in the hope of causing a split among Concacaf, who have aligned with Uefa and the Asian Football Confederation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/aug\/19\/fifth-fifa-vice-president-turns-against-infantino-saying-he-has-lost-confidence-in-him\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in demanding his resignation<\/a> after the World Cup sell-off debacle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In a letter addressed to Infantino on Friday, Montagliani had asked the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/fifa\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fifa<\/a> president \u201cin the name of football to reconsider your attendance\u201d, pointing out his presence would take the spotlight away from a regional under-14 tournament being held alongside the meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Despite that entreaty, Infantino is understand to have turned up the resort of Punta Cana with a large Fifa entourage including the secretary general, Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, and Elkhan Mammadov, a staunch ally who is responsible for maintaining good relations with the 211 members in his role as director of member associations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Before making funding pledges in the CFU meeting Infantino\u2019s team are understood to have approached individual member associations lobbying for support. Mammadov has played a central role in attempts to keep them onside since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jul\/28\/fifa-world-cup-plans-explained-gianni-infantino-uefa-football\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fifa Forward Enterprise scandal broke<\/a> and his insistent approach has caused disquiet in some quarters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">One source said the official Fifa party had attempted to portray their governance crisis as a private dispute between Infantino and Montagliani. The Canadian businessman has not commented since news of the proposed Fifa Forward Enterprise emerged, but has been widely touted in Europe as a possible contender to replace Infantino.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The pair met briefly and shook hands before the CFU meeting in an exchange captured by Infantino\u2019s personal camera crew and later posted on his Instagram channel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">While Mexico, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis have all broken with Concacaf and declared their support for Infantino, the majority of their 41 members are understood to back the alliance with Uefa advocates by Montagliani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Uefa\/Concacaf pact extends beyond attempts to unseat Infantino, with the two confederations in talks about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/aug\/21\/uefa-concacaf-talks-set-up-combined-nations-league-tournament\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">setting up a joint Nations League<\/a> in 2028 that could develop further into a new global competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino has angered many of the Concacaf nations, whose support he is seeking in his re-election campaign,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-864656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864656","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=864656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}