FIFA boss Gianni Infantino apologizes to council, but critics insist he is 'Unfit to Lead'
European football leaders slammed FIFA governance in Zurich, warning that unresolved transparency issues threaten the upcoming presidential election
FIFA President Gianni Infantino issued an apology to the FIFA Council during a tense, meeting in Zurich, but failed to appease his sharpest critics.
During a three-and-a-half-hour extended meeting, Infantino apologized for communication and consultation failures regarding the scrapped $4.2 billion FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme.
The plan which involved selling a commercial stake in tournament assets to private investors, including a group led by Joshua Kushner—was shelved in July following massive backlash.
While offering an apology for how the rollout was handled, Infantino maintained that the project was only ever a proposal and "in no way a done deal".
Gianni Infantino apologized to his toughest critics but provided no new details or documents on FIFA issues that most concern them at a showdown meeting of its ruling council on Thursday.
No documents about the $4.2bn World Cup sell-off plan he launched and dropped in July. No details about the Folarin Balogun red-card case at the World Cup and how US President Donald Trump intervened to help the national team forward.
Pressed by European football officials for written evidence about his secretive private equity plan for the World Cup that provoked a global rift, Infantino asked them to submit written questions, FIFA Vice President Debbie Hewitt said after the three-and-a-half-hour meeting.
“The man has to answer those questions. If he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he is not fit to be the FIFA president,” said Hewitt, who leads the English Football Association.
Unresolved tensions and critic backlash:
High-ranking board members, notably English Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt and German football chief Bernd Neuendorf, remained deeply dissatisfied. They argued the apology lacked substantive answers, documents, or transparency.
Criticisms escalated sharply during the meeting, with Hewitt stating bluntly that if Infantino could not fully answer direct questions regarding the financial plans, "he's not fit to be FIFA president".
Council members also pressed Infantino for explanations on other contentious topics, including the reversal of U.S. forward Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension during the North American World Cup and the controversial awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump.
The heated exchange comes as Infantino faces mounting political pressure ahead of the upcoming FIFA presidential election scheduled for March 2027 in Morocco.
