WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump on Monday backed Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who is in hot water over allegations of a workplace affair and criticism of a failed private investment scheme.
“Fifa would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, calling the Italian-Swiss lawyer “fantastic” and saying he “presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented.” “If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!”
Trump’s backing of Infantino contrasts with the response of US Soccer, which issued a statement critiquing the Fifa leader alongside Canada Soccer and football organisations in Central America and the Caribbean. Infantino, who faces reelection next March, has denied allegations of wrongdoing, and Fifa, for its part, has backed its besieged president, calling the backlash “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” the organisation.
Other football organisations, including the Confederation of African Football and South American governing body Conmebol, share Trump´s position in supporting Infantino. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Uefa and Concacaf have jointly accused Fifa leadership of a “fundamental breach of trust” over a now-abandoned proposal to sell an interest in the commercial rights to the Fifa World Cup, calling for an independent investigation into how the plan was developed and presented.
In an unusually forceful open letter addressed to the football family, the presidents and general secretaries of the three confederations said the controversy was not primarily about money but about the integrity of the game and the integrity of those elected to lead it. The letter was signed by AFC President Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Concacaf President Victor Montagliani and Uefa President Aleksander Čeferin, along with the three confederations’ general secretaries.
The three confederations said leadership in football should be regarded as a duty of service rather than the possession or exercise of power. They said that when trust is broken through deception, or when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, the responsibility of leadership has been abandoned.
The statement did not name Fifa President Gianni Infantino directly in the text, but its criticism comes after Fifa’s proposal to establish a new commercial entity, Fifa Forward Enterprise, which would have brought together Fifa’s commercial rights and tournament operations. The confederations said Fifa’s recent communication to its vice-presidents and 211 member associations acknowledged mistakes but characterised the issue as a failure of communication.
“We believe what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” they said, arguing that the proposal had been advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation and towards a deadline before member associations could properly examine its terms. They went further, saying there had been no acknowledgement that the proposal itself was fundamentally wrong.
The attempt to sell an interest in the Fifa World Cup, they said, was “a profound failure of judgment” and not merely a procedural mistake but a fundamental breach of trust with the institutions Fifa exists to serve. The three confederations have also rejected Fifa’s plan to conduct an internal review of the episode.
Fifa has committed to presenting a report on the events to the Fifa Council, but the AFC, Uefa and Concacaf said that, given the seriousness of the matter, any review should instead be conducted by a fully independent third party.
“The Fifa administration should play no role in conducting the review,” they said. They also called for all relevant documents and records to be preserved, referring to Uefa’s previous communication on document preservation.
