Carney says he no longer has confidence in Gianni Infantino’s ability to run FIFA
- Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed a loss of confidence in FIFA President Gianni Infantino following his shelved plan to open the World Cup to private investment.
- Infantino faced increasing criticism, including from within FIFA, due to his handling of the controversial proposal and has been urged to step down.
- Carney condemned Infantino’s failure to consult FIFA’s senior management on the plan, calling it a fatal mistake for his leadership of the organization.
- Despite recent successes with the expanded 48-team World Cup co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, Infantino’s leadership is under severe threat from the backlash over the aborted commercial restructuring plan.
Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday joined an international chorus of criticism of Infantino, saying he no longer had confidence in his ability to lead FIFA.
“Certainly I don’t have confidence in Mr Infantino, after this point, given what transpired,” Carney told reporters when asked about FIFA’s chief and his now-shelved plan to open the World Cup up to private investment.
Infantino has come under increasing pressure, even from within his organization, over his handling of the proposal, and calls for him to step down have grown since he abandoned it last Saturday.
Carney said Infantino’s reported failure to discuss the plan with FIFA’s senior management team “should be fatal” to his tenure leading world football’s governing body.
“This is not how you run any business, a small business, let alone something that is a global responsibility like football,” Carney told reporters in Toronto.
Infantino held emergency talks earlier Wednesday with FIFA directors in Morocco, the 2030 World Cup host, seeking to contain the crisis.
Infantino had been basking in the afterglow of a highly successful World Cup, the largest ever with 48 teams and co-hosted by three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
But his tenure is facing an unprecedented threat amid a wave of global fury over the scrapped plan, which called for the creation of a new commercial subsidiary, called the FIFA Forward Enterprise, to run events such as the World Cup.