{"id":574506,"date":"2026-08-04T12:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/574506\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:44:08","slug":"concacaf-countries-considering-withdrawing-support-for-under-fire-gianni-infantino-gianni-infantino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/574506\/","title":{"rendered":"Concacaf countries considering withdrawing support for under-fire Gianni Infantino | Gianni Infantino"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of Concacaf countries are considering following Europe\u2019s lead by formally removing their support for the Fifa president Gianni Infantino<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All 41 members of Concacaf, the confederation which represents North America, Central America and the Caribbean, are understood to have submitted letters of endorsement for Infantino\u2019s re-election campaign before the World Cup, but many are now giving serious consideration to withdrawing them.<\/p>\n

Finland became the first of Fifa\u2019s 211 member associations to publicly withdraw its letter of support last Thursday, followed on Monday by the FA of Wales whose chair Laura McAllister had proposed the World Cup boycott at an emergency Uefa meeting last week, while the FA is also understood to have written to Fifa withholding their backing for Infantino<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Concacaf held an emergency meeting last Friday, with a source who attended telling the Guardian that all members are strongly aligned with Uefa, which has led the calls for Infantino to go.<\/p>\n

The Concacaf meeting is understood to have featured pledges from several countries to withdraw their backing for Infantino, and some may have already done so in private.<\/p>\n

One potential difficulty for Concacaf is the fact that four of its members \u2013 the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica \u2013 are bidding to stage the 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup in the next hosting decision to be taken by Fifa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While there are no other bids currently on the table, the decision still has to be approved by Fifa at an extraordinary general meeting to be held in November.<\/p>\n

The United States Soccer Federation is understood to be deeply unhappy with Infantino, particularly with the backlash his dealings with Donald Trump created for them over the Folarin Balogun affair, but given the political sensitivities, may not feel able to take him on.<\/p>\n

Another complicating factor is the fact that the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, has been widely touted as the potential candidate most able to take Infantino on in next March\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n

Although Montagliani has called for a thorough review of Fifa\u2019s governance, the Canadian has yet to decide whether he wants to stand, and told the Guardian in an interview last month<\/a> that his priority is being re-elected as president of Concacaf, whose elections will also take place next year.<\/p>\n

While Concacaf is united, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which also backed the Uefa-led opposition to Infantino\u2019s proposed World Cup sell-off, appears to have splintered since last week\u2019s dramatic events.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the financial powerhouses of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have both publicly backed Infantino to stay on, as have smaller countries such as Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Kuwait and Bhutan.<\/p>\n

While most of the AFC\u2019s 47 members \u2013 including Saudi Arabia \u2013 have stayed silent, Uefa is hoping it can attract their support, but it remains unclear whether the rebels have the numbers to force a genuine electoral contest.<\/p>\n

New Zealand \u2060Football\u2019s Andrew Pragnell says Fifa\u2019s abandoned private equity proposal delivered a shock to confidence in world football\u2019s governance, and he urged Oceania\u2019s members to be united on the question of Infantino\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Oceania\u2019s confederation, which includes New \u2060Zealand among its 11 members, has yet to take a position on the Fifa president\u2019s leadership, although Pragnall admitted there had been \u201cenormous gains\u201d for football associations outside the traditional powerhouses of Europe and \u200bSouth America under Infantino \u201cbut the proposal itself, the way in which it was delivered, developed, the way members found out, and the shock to confidence amongst the international football system, has cast a pretty big shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pragnell added New Zealand \u200bwould consult with Oceania members and other regional confederations before adopting a position and said it would be preferable for the member nations to be aligned on the matter. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously more power in numbers,\u201d said Pragnall. \u201cCertainly it helps when a confederation acts in unison. You\u2019ve seen in some confederations, even in the last week, members go different ways from other members.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of Concacaf countries are considering following Europe\u2019s lead by formally removing their support for the Fifa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-574506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}