Infantino promises greater openness after Fifa World Cup commercial plan collapse

Fifa president Gianni Infantino says he wants a new culture of openness and dialogue within football’s governing body after the collapse of his $4.2bn (R69bn) plan to sell part of the World Cup’s commercial rights.

Infantino said on Thursday that greater transparency was “not about generating positive headlines”, as he offered critics an independent review of Fifa’s governance and decision-making.

“I have received positive messages about it from different parts of the world, and it is important that we keep listening to each other,” he wrote on Instagram from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, which is hosting the Arabian Gulf Cup.

Infantino will chair a meeting of Fifa’s 37-member council in Zurich on October 15. The council is also expected to consider a consultation involving Fifa’s 211 member associations and its six continental confederations on “how to further strengthen Fifa’s decision-making processes”.

The member associations effectively own Fifa, a Switzerland-based not-for-profit organisation which has at least $5bn in cash reserves following the financially successful men’s World Cup in North America.

The dispute over Infantino’s proposal has been led by three vice-presidents on the Fifa council: Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, North America’s Victor Montagliani and Asia’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

Infantino’s plan involved creating a commercial spin-off partly owned by investors led by Josh Kushner. The proposal triggered the most serious crisis at Fifa since the anti-corruption arrests in 2015 that resulted in trials in New York.

“There must be a culture of dialogue, of listening to each other and respecting one another,” Infantino wrote ahead of the council meeting. “This is not about generating positive headlines, it is about doing what is right for the game.”

His presidency, which began in 2016, has faced repeated controversy when multi-billion-dollar commercial proposals were put forward without full consultation with continental bodies, including Uefa, which successfully blocked them.

Fifa was also criticised over what appeared to be a highly centralised style of leadership, while Infantino developed closer links with US President Donald Trump around this year’s World Cup. Fifa created a peace prize for Trump last year and allowed US striker Folarin Balogun to avoid a mandatory tournament ban after intervention by the White House.

Under the abandoned proposal, the 211 national associations were offered $20m each to support the creation of the Fifa Forward Enterprise subsidiary. Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation argued instead that Fifa could pay every association a $10m dividend from its existing reserves.

Infantino faces a challenge to his presidency before a vote by Fifa members in Morocco on March 18. He said he was determined to listen to football officials and continue working with them.

“I have never been more determined and committed in doing that,” he wrote. “Fifa is always engaged. I am always engaged and I want to hear how we can continue to grow football for the benefit of everybody, everywhere.”