Scottish FA withdraws support for Fifa president Infantino

Gianni Infantino the president of FIFA waves as he arrives at the presidential inauguration day event in Colombia

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

Gianni Infantino was first elected as Fifa president in 2016

ByDale Johnson, Football issues correspondent and Chris McLaughlin, Scotland sports news correspondent

Published15 minutes ago

The Scottish Football Association has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino and will not be voting for his re-election as president of Fifa, chief executive Ian Maxwell has told BBC Sport.

Infantino is under increasing pressure over his attempt, later abandoned, to create a new company to manage the commercial and ticketing rights of all Fifa competitions, including the World Cups, with 21% to be sold off to a private investment company.

Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) was aborted after widespread criticism from several confederations, led by Uefa, which has threatened a boycott of all Fifa competitions.

"The position of the SFA has been clear since the 55 Uefa associations met," said Maxwell, speaking as he announced Belgian Sebastian Pocognoli as the new Scotland head coach.

"We have aligned ourselves with the Uefa position and 55 nations are stronger than one voice.

"Their statement since then has talked about a lack of confidence in the Fifa leadership and the Scottish FA agree completely with that decision.

"The SFA will not be voting for Gianni Infantino come the re-election in early 2027."

Maxwell rejected the suggestion that the SFA had previously failed to publicly state it no longer supported Infantino because its president, Mike Mulraney, heads up the Fifa finance committee.

The Football Associations of England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have already declared they have withdrawn support for Infantino, who is scheduled to stand for a fourth term as president in March.

'A profound lack of judgement'

Last week, Fifa and Infantino were accused of breaking trust "through deception", in an open letter issued by Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation.

The letter, signed by the presidents and general secretaries of the three regional governing bodies, said recent controversy over the FFE proposal was fundamentally about "the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it".

While the statement did not name Infantino, sources have told BBC Sport that it should be seen as an opportunity for him to resign and leave his position with dignity.

Fifa has committed to presenting a report on FFE to the next meeting of the Fifa council, which is expected to take place in October.

The three confederations said this failed to "recognise that proper governance in the face of such a profound lack of judgement would require that such a review be conducted by a fully independent third party".

It also underlined a legal warning made by Uefa that Fifa should not delete or destroy any documents related to the abandoned plans.

BBC Sport understands that there have been preliminary discussions between the three confederations over breakaway competitions, should Infantino remain in situ. However, substantive talks are yet to begin, according to others.

At present there is no candidate who has put their name forward to stand against Infantino, before a 18 November deadline.

Very difficult to predict who has the upper hand

The football world appears to have been split down the middle by the issue, with the confederations of Africa, South American and Oceania having backed Infantino.

But even within confederations, there is disagreement and it makes it very difficult to predict whether Infantino or his opponents have the upper hand in this battle.

In Oceania, which has 11 member associations, New Zealand has said it will not follow the confederation and vote for him.

Mexico, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis have broken away from the other 32 Concacaf nations to support the Fifa president.

Of the 46 Asian confederations members, so far eight countries have split to champion Infantino's cause - the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Kuwait, Mongolia, the Philippines and Bhutan.

The Fifa Council, on which there are 36 confederation and national association heads plus Infantino, seems similarly split.

It raises questions about whether Infantino has the political power to govern Fifa, even if he wins an election of the 211 member associations.

The first test of Uefa's threat is just over three weeks away, when the Fifa Under-20 Women's World Cup is set to kick off. It is being hosted by Poland and features five other European nations, including England.