Infantino apologises for World Cup sell-off plan but told he is 'not fit to be Fifa president'

Gianni Infantino has apologised to the Fifa Council for attempting to sell stakes in the World Cup and Fifa tournaments to private investors, but FA chair Debbie Hewitt told reporters in Zurich on Thursday that he remains “not fit to be Fifa president” after declining to answer questions from his critics during a three-and-a-half hour Council meeting.

Hewitt, who sits on the Fifa Council, said she received “no new information” during the gathering — the first official meeting since details of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan emerged in July — and that Uefa’s position opposing Infantino had not changed.

“The man has to answer those questions, and if he doesn’t answer those questions, no, he’s not fit to be Fifa president, and that was what was shared in the meeting,” Hewitt told reporters. “He’s told us to submit those questions. There were so many of them, and now it’s up to him to do that, and do that in the open way. The minimum is having the papers from FFE, because if there’s nothing to hide, then share them with us.”

Hewitt confirmed that Infantino apologised specifically for not sharing the FFE plan with Council members before it was reported by The Times in the week following the World Cup final, and that she believed he “regrets that deeply”. However, she said he still had not addressed other recent controversies.

Among those unresolved issues is Infantino’s involvement in overturning Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension at the World Cup following a call from US president Donald Trump, who later publicly admitted he had personally contacted Infantino to request a review of the card shown to the forward against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Infantino also faces questions over the Fifa Peace Prize.

Infantino has asked Council members to submit their outstanding questions in writing. He outlined plans for internal reform at Fifa last month and has indicated he intends to stand for re-election in March, despite sustained pressure to resign following the collapse of the private investor scheme.

Uefa led calls for Infantino to step down, with further opposition coming from the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, which represents nations across North and Central America and the Caribbean. Hewitt herself wrote to Infantino last month requesting an independent review into both the World Cup privatisation plan and the handling of the Balogun case.