crisis in FIFA; Requesting Infantino's resignation over the $20 billion plan

The plan to sell part of the commercial rights of the World Cup to private investors has launched a wave of protests against Gianni Infantino.

Ambassador of Arjan-Sports Group: Gianni Infantino, the president of the International Football Federation (FIFA), has faced a wave of criticism after European football managers disagreed with his apology regarding the plan to sell part of the commercial rights of the World Cup to private investors. Infantino's opponents have demanded his resignation and the publication of all documents related to the negotiations.

At the FIFA council meeting in Zurich, a direct confrontation between Infantino and a number of football managers took place, which lasted for nearly three hours. In this meeting, the president of FIFA apologized for the mistakes made in the field of information, consultation with the members of the council and management of negotiations without prior notice of this body, but his efforts to reduce tensions did not have results.

Debbie Hewitt, president of the FA, led the opposition to Infantino. He emphasized that the FIFA president's apology is not acceptable and Infantino must answer questions about this case with transparency.

At the same time, UEFA is pursuing legal action to compel FIFA to release all official documents of the negotiations. The main concern of the opponents is that commercial football assets will be sold at a price lower than their real value to entities that are close to political and investment circles.

20 billion dollar plan; The origin of differences with Infantino

The roots of this crisis go back to the actions that Infantino started after the end of the last World Cup to launch a project called "FIFA Foundation".

The aim of this project was to sell a share of up to 20% of the commercial rights, television broadcasting rights and ticket sales of future world competitions to private investment funds. The value of this project was estimated at 20 billion dollars.

This proposal was opposed by European, Asian and North American football federations. Opponents believed that the valuation was too low, especially since the revenue of the last World Cup was reported to be close to 15 billion dollars.

Finally, Infantino stopped the implementation of this plan due to increased pressure and threats to intensify the protests.

UEFA is trying to nominate a candidate to compete with Infantino to pursue a managerial change at the top of world football. In the meantime, the name of Arsene Wenger, the former head coach of Arsenal and FIFA's director of football development, has been mentioned as one of the options mentioned in the report.

On the other hand, Infantino has announced a plan to allocate 25 million dollars to each national football federation. His opponents have interpreted this action as an attempt to gain the support of the federations and increase his chances of remaining in the FIFA presidency for another term.

In this way, the dispute over the private investment plan, financial transparency and how to manage sensitive cases has become one of the main axes of tension between Infantino and a number of European football managers; The tension on the eve of the FIFA presidential election can affect the atmosphere of the management competition of this institution.

By issuing a statement, FIFA declared its full support for Gianni Infantino, the head of this institution, and warned against insults against him. This decision was taken after the cancellation of the controversial "FIFA Forward Enterprise" plan and widespread criticism about it.

A plan that could transform the economic structure of the World Cup was stopped before it could be implemented by a wave of opposition. At the same time, new details of the possible financial benefits of the FIFA president in the event of the implementation of this project have been published, which has led to widespread reactions.

The French Football Federation withdrew its support for the candidacy of Gianni Infantino for the presidency of FIFA in 2027 and called for fundamental reforms in the management structure of world football.