
Gianni Infantino faces grilling at potentially âÂÂexplosiveâ Fifa council meeting
World Cup sell-off, Balogun and peace prize on agenda
Opponents will press home need for independent review
Gianni Infantino will be questioned by Fifa council members over his involvement in the aborted World Cup sell-off plan, the Folarin Balogun affair and the decision to award Donald Trump the inaugural Fifa peace prize at what is expected to be a heated meeting at the world governing bodyâÂÂs headquarters on Thursday.
The Fifa president rejected repeated calls for an extraordinary general meeting of council during the summer after the emergence of the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposals, but will meet his critics for the first time since in Zurich with one attender predicting that the talks could be âÂÂexplosiveâÂÂ.
Aleksander Ceferin, Victor Montagliani and Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, the presidents of Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation respectively, all of whom have all called for Infantino to resign, will be in attendance to press home demands for an independent review of FifaâÂÂs governance.
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In response to letters from Ceferin, Montagliani and Salman sent last month Infantino pledged to commission an external review of FifaâÂÂs future governance, but no details have been forthcoming and there remains scepticism over whether it will be truly independent.
In addition to FFE, Balogun and the peace prize, which featured on an agenda circulated by Fifa last month, Infantino is also likely to face questions about a report in the Times this week that he received a âÂÂsecond salaryâ of about ã1.3m in 2024 on top of the ã3.9m declared in FifaâÂÂs accounts.
US Internal Revenue Service filings show a Fifa subsidiary in charge of running last summerâÂÂs World Cup paid Infantino $1.76m, which was not mentioned in FifaâÂÂs annual report, where his salary is recorded as 4.27m Swiss francs (ã3.88m).
Fifa statutes state that âÂÂthe individual compensation of the Fifa president ⦠shall be made publicâÂÂ. The governing body has denied wrongdoing.
âÂÂFifa does not pay a second salary to the Fifa president and complies with all reporting requirements in relation to compensation,â it said. âÂÂThe Fifa presidentâÂÂs annual compensation, as well as other contractual benefits, are decided by the independent compensation subcommittee.
âÂÂFifa strongly rejects any claims that it has failed to disclose any financial information and has violated FifaâÂÂs statutes. Fifa accounts are independently audited, and all declarations are in line with tax regulations in Switzerland, the United States and elsewhere.âÂÂ
Despite these controversies, and the public opposition of the European, Asian and North and Central American and Caribbean confederations, Infantino is on course to be re-elected unopposed in MarchâÂÂs election.
Montaglini has rejected calls to stand against Infantino to focus on being re-elected as ConcacafâÂÂs president and Uefa has yet to find an alternative candidate despite tentatively sounding out high-profile footballing figures including Arsène Wenger and Michele Kang, who owns clubs including London City Lionesses.
The deadline for candidates to declare their intention to stand is 18 November, with the election to be held at Fifa congress in Rabat on 18 March.
