Gianni Infantino gets backing from leading African football administrators

Five of the continent’s influential football leaders have issued statements that offer Infantino support while also welcoming the decision to drop his controversial plan to sell a stake in future World Cup revenue. Their messages came ahead of a meeting of the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee on Thursday at which they will discuss ​the abandoned plan to raise $4.2 billion from a new commercial rights body. While Asia, Europe and CONCACAF, which runs the game in North and Central ​America and the Caribbean, all said over the weekend they had lost confidence in Infantino’s leadership, CAF has kept its counsel, ⁠offering Infantino hope he can count on the support of its large membership as he looks to hold on to power at next March’s FIFA presidential ​election.

CAF only released a statement last Wednesday saying it would study Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative, but he abandoned the project under intense pressure on Friday. It remains ​an item on the agenda for the CAF meeting, although there is no guarantee African football’s governing body will take any stand on Infantino’s future. But leading committee members say they are backing Infantino, including CAF Vice President Fouzi Lekjaa from Morocco and fellow FIFA Council members Hany Abo Rida (Egypt), Hamidou Djibrilla (Niger) and Ahmed Yhaya (Mauritania).

There has also been a statement of support ​from Veron Mosengo-Omba, recently elected president of the football federation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and former CAF general secretary, who studied at university in ​Switzerland with Infantino. All released similarly worded messages welcoming Infantino’s decision to abandon the project before praising him and expressing support. African countries helped Infantino to his election success in 2016 on ‌the back ⁠of his promises to more than double development money dispensed to FIFA’s member associations.