issued a statement<\/a> saying he was \u201cnot aware\u201d of Infantino\u2019s plans.<\/p>\nUEFA seeks rival candidate<\/p>\n
The Swedish football federation confirmed on Monday that UEFA is actively looking \u201cto come up with an alternative candidate\u201d for FIFA president. The next election is scheduled for March.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, UEFA signalled it wants to end Infantino\u2019s decade-long presidency, saying he had lost the confidence of world football and that \u201cno option should be off the table\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hours earlier, Infantino had withdrawn the divisive proposal that offered FIFA\u2019s 211 member federations one-off payments of $20m each with a mid-September deadline to accept.<\/p>\n
The FFE spin-off valued by FIFA at $20bn would have taken control of the football body\u2019s money-making commercial and tournament operations through at least 2038. It promised to more than double development money over that time for the 211 members who own the Zurich-based not-for-profit governing body.<\/p>\n
It was the project of just one man, FIFA\u2019s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said in a stinging statement on Friday, adding that staff felt deceived by their boss, Infantino.<\/p>\n
Legal proceedings are \u201creasonably anticipated\u201d, UEFA\u2019s lawyer Andrew J Levander wrote, citing the belief of football stakeholders that the plan was \u201cfundamentally incompatible with the proper governance of football\u201d.<\/p>\n
UEFA has been most outspoken against its former employee Infantino, while the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, the North and Central American and Caribbean football body, also made strong statements opposing Infantino\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
Infantino has most support from his traditional base in Africa, while South America\u2019s CONMEBOL is relying on him to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams from 48. That would give more hosting games to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the home country of CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez.<\/p>\n
Infantino\u2019s path to stabilising the presidency he has held for 10 and a half years was unclear on Monday, which began in New York with a report he was seeking support from the administration of his close ally, United States President Donald Trump, possibly in a call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no plans for @SecRubio to speak with Infantino and there is no call this morning,\u201d Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, posted on social media.<\/p>\n
A week is a long time in politics<\/p>\n
The private equity plan has provoked a stunning turnaround in fortunes for Infantino since it was revealed last Tuesday by The Times in London.<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old FIFA leader left New York after the World Cup final two weeks ago, seemingly a lock to be re-elected unopposed next March for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.<\/p>\n
The spin-off operation could have created a commissioner-like role for him beyond 2031, paying much more than his current $6m annual salary and bonus deal as president.<\/p>\n
FIFA briefed at the World Cup that Infantino had letters of support from about 200 of the 211 member federations.<\/p>\n
Those letters are now likely being withdrawn across Europe, with the Wales federation the first to announce its reversal.<\/p>\n
The candidate deadline is November 18 for an election exactly four months later in Morocco, one of Infantino\u2019s strongest allies and a cohost of the 2030 tournament with Spain and Portugal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European football body, UEFA, has confirmed to Al Jazeera that a preservation letter has been sent to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,3456,527,44,561,457,82,834,772,1690,13009],"class_list":["post-845752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}