Infantino calls executive meeting as criticism mounts
Gianni Infantino has summoned FIFA's senior leadership to Rabat on Wednesday, after Arsene Wenger, secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and Jordan FA president Prince Ali bin Hussein all broke cover to criticise the fallout from his abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise plan.
An executive meeting in Rabat
Infantino, who has been in Morocco for the past week, has called an executive meeting in Rabat on Wednesday as he tries to find a way through the controversy over his now-scrapped $20 billion World Cup investment plan. It comes after another day in which some of FIFA's own leadership added their voices to the criticism, rather than the opposition being confined to UEFA and member associations.
Wenger: scrapping the plan was "beyond question"
Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global football development since 2019, said in a statement issued through FIFA that withdrawing the plan was "absolutely necessary and beyond question." He said he had no involvement in the project and first learned of it through media reports, adding that he believes in "an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity." Wenger is among 18 FIFA officials named in a document preservation letter UEFA sent the organisation last week, a step toward possible legal action.
Grafstrom calls it "a sad and reproachable series of events"
Secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, widely seen as a close Infantino ally since becoming his chief of staff in 2016, struck a similar note in an internal staff memo, describing the past week as "difficult to comprehend and accept" while urging staff to stay focused on serving football's 211 member associations. He assured staff they would be "defended and safeguarded" from the surrounding politics.
Prince Ali accuses FIFA of "blackmail"
The sharpest criticism came from Prince Ali bin Hussein, president of the Jordan Football Association, who alleged FIFA had withheld prize money owed for Jordan's runner-up finish at the Arab Cup, and that support for Infantino's re-election had been informally tied to releasing it — language he said "amounts to blackmail." Infantino has said he received letters of support from more than 200 of FIFA's 211 member associations ahead of the World Cup final; Jordan was one of the holdouts. Prince Ali, who has twice run for the FIFA presidency, also alleged Jordanian supporters had been denied U.S. visas to attend their country's debut World Cup this summer. FIFA has been approached for comment.
Carlos Cordeiro remains the only resignation
Cordeiro, Infantino's senior adviser on global strategy and governance, quit days before the plan was scrapped, calling it "a bad deal for football." He remains the only FIFA official to have resigned over the affair, even as criticism has spread from UEFA and national federations to figures inside FIFA's own administration.
Sources: BBC Sport, FIFA statements, August 2026.