FIFA issued a sharp statement Saturday pushing back against what it called a coordinated effort to remove its president, Gianni Infantino, as pressure from European football associations reached a new level.
The statement, reported by the BBC, came after the Daily Telegraph published a report claiming that a woman alleged to be Infantino's lover had received a severance payment from UEFA after he had an affair while serving as the organization's general secretary. A FIFA spokesperson told the Telegraph that Infantino "strongly denies" the allegations and that they are "categorically untrue."
FIFA did not stop there. The organization accused critics of spreading "unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims," adding that "speculation and insinuation should not be presented as fact."
The broader conflict centers on FIFA's now-abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal, known as FFE, which would have created a new company to manage commercial and ticketing rights and sold off 21 percent of those rights to a private investment firm. UEFA said the plan cost Infantino its confidence. Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness called on Infantino to resign on Friday.
European football's governing body said its threat to boycott FIFA events remains in place and that it had not received assurances the FFE plan could not be revived. Infantino called a meeting of FIFA's management board in Rabat, Morocco on Wednesday, where he and secretary general Mattias Grafstrom issued a statement apologizing for the FFE proposal while also warning that FIFA would "no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process."
Saturday's statement was more combative. "The FIFA president was democratically elected by Fifa's Member Associations and continues to serve with their mandate," FIFA said. "It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president."
FIFA noted that opposition to Infantino is concentrated within Europe. The Mexican Football Federation broke with its regional governing body, Concacaf, to back Infantino. South America's governing body, Conmebol, said it would reject any attempt to remove Infantino without a vote of all 211 FIFA member countries. All 54 nations in the Confederation of African Football also back the president.
"Those who do not have the support of Fifa's member associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through Fifa's established democratic processes," the statement read.
