Gianni Infantino has apologised for errors over his now-scrapped plan to sell off stakes in FIFA competitions to private investors, but he'll remain FIFA president after receiving backing from senior executives at a meeting in Morocco. The apology comes as revelations emerge that Infantino held talks nearly 6 years ago about rebranding the European breakaway competition the "FIFA Super League" — raising fresh questions about his commitment to football's democratic structures.
Infantino summoned members of the management board to FIFA's Africa office in Rabat on Wednesday after mounting criticism of his proposals, and FIFA released a statement of support four hours after the meeting ended. European football's governing body UEFA said at the weekend that it had lost confidence in Infantino, calling the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal a "shabby, back room, opaque deal".
A Pattern of Private Deals
Much of the criticism has come from inside FIFA, including from secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, who was at Wednesday's meeting. In an internal memo sent to FIFA staff on Tuesday, Grafstrom wrote that the situation was "a sad and reproachable series of events". In a statement after the meeting, Grafstrom and the management board "reaffirmed their full support" for Infantino as president. Infantino and Grafstrom also sent a signed letter to FIFA's vice-presidents, council and 211 member associations saying they "sincerely apologise" for their errors and "commit to them not happening again". The two were pictured attending a Women's Africa Cup of Nations match together in Rabat after the meeting.
Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a proposal for private investment in FIFA's tournaments, including the men's and women's World Cups, through a new subsidiary, FFE. FIFA said that during Wednesday's meeting "mistakes" regarding FFE were "acknowledged", and said it was "not the intention" for the FIFA council and member associations to "feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently". The governing body added that it "acknowledged that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media". The Times broke the story of Infantino's plan 9 days ago.
FIFA also said it "will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process and will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard its name and reputation". Earlier, FIFA denied a story in the Times that Infantino had promised Morocco it would host the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for its support. FIFA said it was a "false and misleading" claim and that a decision on where to hold the final, with the tournament also hosted by Spain and Portugal, will be made "in due course".
The Super League Connection
The Guardian reported that Infantino held talks about rebranding the European breakaway competition the "FIFA Super League", with negotiations going as far as a term sheet dated October 2020. The document proposed renaming any new competition under FIFA's branding and said FIFA was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to cut back the number of international windows. It also outlined how FIFA would have been given special governance and political rights with a "golden share".
The term sheet set out a partnership of at least 12 years between FIFA and the Super League and proposed a joint venture that would have run its commercial operations. It also proposed that an iteration of FIFA's expanded Club World Cup, referred to as the "global club competition", would be held annually over an enshrined three-week period and tied directly to the Super League. That tournament would have been a straight knockout competition rather than the group-based version that relaunched in 2025.
The term sheet said the founding clubs "want to agree the terms of a partnership" between the Super League and FIFA, leading to the creation of the two competitions. It followed an initial proposal to FIFA by the breakaway clubs. While non-binding, a term sheet is generally the precursor to a definitive contract and suggested discussions between FIFA and the Super League's creators were nearing a conclusion at the time.
It's unclear whether Infantino and FIFA progressed their role in the project beyond the term-sheet stage. After a version of the scheme was launched without FIFA's direct involvement in April 2021 and later scrapped following large-scale protests, Infantino addressed UEFA's congress in Montreux saying his organisation could "only strongly disapprove the creation of the Super League". Multiple sources said an earlier conversation with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, convened by a third party, hastened his distancing himself from the new venture. Infantino is understood to have told associates afterwards that he had no wish to work against football's institutions.
Democratic Deficit
The evidence of FIFA's outline agreement with the Super League, coupled with Infantino's Football Forward Enterprise scheme, casts doubt on that assertion and suggests multiple attempts to reshape the game without consulting its most important stakeholders. The league would have contained 15 permanent members and five clubs qualifying from existing competitions. It also committed to creating a women's equivalent, using the same clubs, by an unspecified date.
The term sheet referred to FIFA under the name "WO1", which is also the name used in the British army for a high-ranking officer. In a section outlining the agreement's key components, it said the Super League "is open to discuss naming the competition WO1 SL". It also confirmed FIFA would be "granted a preferred equity stake in the Super League", which would give it decision-making capability on format changes, calendar alterations, distribution of solidarity money and the appointment of a chief executive for the competition.
Senior figures within European football were understood to have been shocked by the plan to drastically shrink the number of international windows, squeezing them into two fortnight-long spaces each year. Member associations, many of whom are being courted for support by Infantino as he battles to save his tenure this week, may have lost the commercial opportunities available from added visibility for their national teams and found themselves at the behest of a privately run club competition.
A separate point in the earlier proposal also noted "reduction of leagues" as a point for discussion. The term sheet said that "a new international match calendar" devised by FIFA, the Super League and "other relevant stakeholders" would be reviewed and implemented with FIFA's agreement.
Clubs participating in the Super League would have been required to join the World Football Club Association, which was a short-lived representative body launched by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez in 2019. Real were key drivers of the Super League scheme and only closed the door on the project when announcing an agreement with UEFA in February this year.
Growing Opposition
Infantino will hope the meeting begins to draw a line under the latest, and perhaps biggest, controversy of his 10-year tenure. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country hosted the recent World Cup with the United States and Mexico, said he no longer had confidence in Infantino. Former Barcelona, Real Madrid and Portugal winger Luis Figo, who ran for the FIFA presidency against Infantino's predecessor Sepp Blatter in 2015 before withdrawing, called on him to immediately resign. Figo said: "Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. It is too late to save his dignity but it is not too late to save football."
Infantino, 56, looks set to fight for re-election for a fourth term. Rivals have until 18 November to put their names forward to stand against him, with the election to be held at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March next year. A candidate requires 106 votes from FIFA's 211 members to win. UEFA, however, may well have other ideas. At the weekend, it said it had lost confidence in Infantino's leadership and threatened legal action against FIFA. Earlier this week several member associations, including Wales, with England set to follow suit, withdrew support for his re-election.
FIFA also said that although "mistakes were made, everything that was done was done in full compliance with the FIFA regulatory framework". It added that it felt the outcomes of the meeting would "strengthen FIFA's governance" and "restore confidence in the organisation". It's unlikely that such statements and the approval of a group of executives will dampen UEFA's anger.
UEFA has been quick to react to every twist and turn since Infantino's FFE plan emerged, from the initial rejection of FFE to the moment when all 55 member associations threatened to boycott FIFA's competitions, through to the effective vote of no confidence. But UEFA has a problem. Since Infantino performed his U-turn, only Concacaf as a confederation has criticised him, and it did not go as far as to say it had lost confidence in him. The Asian confederation rejected the plan, but there has been no blanket statement since Infantino aborted it.
Outside Europe, only Jordan has publicly called for him to go. In recent days Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Mauritania, DR Congo and the Philippines have all backed Infantino. Those countries have benefited from funding via Infantino's FIFA Forward programme, the forerunner to FFE, to the tune of $8m (£5.94m) in each three-year cycle.
Infantino may also have to map out a route for reform. This may involve putting additional checks and balances in place that would make it impossible for such a plan to be devised and presented in this way again. The BBC report also said he may shelve plans for a 64-team World Cup or offer to open up FIFA's cash reserves.
FIFA's close proximity to the Super League proposal adds to the growing number of privately backed ventures brought to the table by Infantino during his 10-year reign. In 2018 he pressed the case for a $25bn offer from SoftBank to create an expanded Club World Cup and global Nations League. Close allies within FIFA are understood to have cautioned him against the plan, which failed to gain support after opposition from Europe.
Why This Matters:
The revelations about Infantino's Super League involvement expose a troubling pattern: repeated attempts to privatise global football without consulting the national associations, leagues, and supporters who sustain the game. The term sheet from nearly 6 years ago shows FIFA was willing to sideline member associations and shrink international windows — threatening the very structures that give smaller nations a voice in world football. Infantino's apology for the FFE plan rings hollow when viewed alongside evidence of earlier backroom deals. European football's loss of confidence isn't just about one failed proposal — it's about a democratic deficit at the heart of FIFA's governance. Member associations outside Europe may back Infantino because they depend on FIFA Forward funding, but that dependency itself raises questions about whether votes can be bought with development money. Football's global governance needs transparency, accountability, and genuine consultation — not term sheets drafted in secret with breakaway clubs. Whether Infantino survives until the March election may depend less on his apologies than on whether enough associations demand real reform.