Welsh FA withdraws support for Infantino as FIFA chief

The Football Association of Wales has withdrawn its support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s re-election bid over his bungled effort to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

Infantino announced last week he was shelving the widely-denounced plan that was rejected by three confederations but his decade-long reign at the head of FIFA remains under intense scrutiny.

Infantino is due to stand for re-election in March next year but the FAW has now become the first football association to officially pull the plug on its support for the Swiss.

A FAW statement said: “The Football Association of Wales hereby confirms its withdrawal of support for the candidature of Mr Gianni Infantino, for re-election as FIFA president for the 2027–2031 term.

“The recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football.

“Failing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept.”

The English FA is also understood to have written to FIFA making it clear it no longer supports Infantino.

The governing body issued a statement on Saturday saying it “fully supported” UEFA’s position that confidence had been lost in Infantino over the FFE proposal.

UEFA’s statement on Saturday said that “no option should be off the table”, with the possibility remaining that national associations could trigger a vote of no confidence in Infantino which would lead to the calling of an Extraordinary FIFA Congress.

It would only require 43 associations to do that, but it is unlikely such a move would be made unless there was then a strong belief, if not certainty, that a majority among FIFA’s 211 members existed to unseat Infantino at that Congress.

CONCACAF, which represents the associations of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, also called for a “full review” of Infantino’s leadership over the weekend, with the two confederations containing 96 associations combined.

Sources have indicated that CONCACAF’s president Victor Montagliani, a current FIFA vice-president, would be prepared to run for football’s top position.

A number of African and Asian associations issued statements supporting Infantino over the weekend, including those from Morocco, Egypt and Qatar.