The heads of six Arab soccer federations expressed their \u201cfull support\u201d and \u201cconfidence\u201d in Gianni Infantino on Thursday as the embattled FIFA president fights to keep his job after his failed World Cup private investment plan.<\/p>\n
The backing came from 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Mauritania, Lebanon and Sudan, with four of the signatories being FIFA council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, the undersigned leaders of our respective football associations, express our full support for Mr. Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and reaffirm our confidence in his leadership and continued commitment to the development of football worldwide,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deeply appreciate Mr. Infantino\u2019s sustained efforts to advance football globally, expand opportunities across all regions and strengthen the game\u2019s role in bringing people and communities together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement said the signatories \u201clook forward to continuing our close cooperation with him towards a stronger and more prosperous future for world football, expanding opportunities and further enhancing Arab football\u2019s contribution to the global game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Infantino is facing a revolt after his plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. He withdrew the $20 billion proposal after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA, which has warned of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.<\/p>\n
UEFA teamed up with CONCACAF \u2014 the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean \u2014 and the AFC \u2014 the confederation in Asia \u2014 and issued an open letter Monday saying Infantino\u2019s plan was a \u201cfundamental breach of trust\u201d and described it as \u201cdeception.\u201d<\/p>\n
And on Thursday, the Football Association of Ireland said in a statement it has withdrawn its support for Infantino to be re-elected as FIFA president in March, saying \u201crecent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The soccer federations in England and Wales did the same last week, while Northern Ireland said it was backing UEFA’s stance.<\/p>\n
Schism in Asian bloc over Infantino support<\/p>\n
By expressing support for Infantino, Qatar and Lebanon aligned against the Asian Football Confederation. Infantino\u2019s official Instagram account previously has posted letters of support from several member federations, including Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
The four FIFA council members among the signatories were Qatar Football Association president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Egyptian Football Association president Hany Abo Rida, Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa and Mauritanian Football Federation president Ahmed Yahya.<\/p>\n
The other two were Lebanese Football Association president Hashem Haidar and Moatasem Gafar, president of the Sudan Football Association.<\/p>\n
Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next year in Morocco.<\/p>\n
FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here\n <\/p>\n
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The heads of six Arab soccer federations expressed their \u201cfull support\u201d and \u201cconfidence\u201d in Gianni Infantino on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-856782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856782","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=856782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}