FIFA President Infantino calls crisis meeting in Rabat amid investor plan backlash

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5 days · 4 summary articles
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has summoned senior leaders to a crisis meeting in Rabat, Morocco, on Wednesday, according to reports by The Times, Sky Sports and other British media. The gathering follows mounting criticism over his abandoned proposal to sell World Cup commercial rights to private investors.
Infantino faces growing opposition from within FIFA and external critics. FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström described the failed investor deal as a “sad and deplorable series of events” in an internal letter to staff on Aug. 4. Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s director of global football development, has distanced himself from Infantino, while close ally and advisor Carlos Cordeiro resigned last week in protest.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, president of the Jordan Football Association and a former FIFA vice president, publicly accused Infantino of blackmail. In a post on X, al-Hussein claimed FIFA withheld funds owed to Jordan’s national team and verbally suggested during the World Cup that endorsing Infantino would benefit Jordan’s football association. “We have not supported him so far and we certainly will not do so now,” al-Hussein wrote, adding that the situation “amounts to blackmail and we refuse to accept it.” Jordan is reportedly owed $4.2 million in prize money from the FIFA Arab Cup in December 2025.
The crisis deepened after UEFA and other confederations rejected FIFA’s investor plan, which Infantino later scrapped. Several U.S. World Cup host cities are also demanding millions in unpaid FIFA funding for infrastructure and community projects, according to a report by The Athletic.
Rabat, the meeting’s location, hosts FIFA’s regional headquarters for Africa. The city is set to stage the 77th FIFA Congress and presidential elections in 2027. Infantino had appeared publicly in Rabat last week as a guest of King Mohammed VI.
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