Gianni Infantino apologized to his toughest critics at a showdown meeting of FIFA's ruling council on Thursday, but offered no new details or documents on the issues that most concern them, according to the Associated Press.
Infantino provided no documents about the $4.2 billion World Cup sell-off plan he launched and then dropped in July, and gave no details about the Folarin Balogun red-card case at the World Cup or how U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to help the national team forward. FIFA will, however, review whether to continue awarding the peace prize it created to give to Trump last December.
European soccer officials pressed Infantino for written evidence about his secretive private equity plan for the World Cup that provoked a global rift. FIFA vice president Debbie Hewitt said Infantino responded by asking them to submit written questions.
"The man has to answer those questions. If he doesn't answer those questions, no, he is not fit to be the FIFA president," said Hewitt, who leads the English Football Association.
UEFA, European soccer's governing body, is leading attempts to remove Infantino before or at the FIFA presidential election in March, and Thursday's meeting did little to change that stance. German soccer leader Bernd Neuendorf, one of eight UEFA delegates on the 37-member FIFA Council, said the council had not met since Infantino provoked the crisis.
"No satisfactory answers were provided," Neuendorf told reporters. "We need a person of integrity, someone who can be expected to restore the reputation of the association, which has undoubtedly been lost."
Infantino opened the meeting by apologizing to his council colleagues for blindsiding them and creating a furor over his private investor plan with Joshua Kushner, which was revealed in media reports nine days after the World Cup final in July. Hewitt said Infantino offered the apology "with some contrition."
UEFA has also asked courts in the United States for the right to obtain evidence for a criminal complaint it has filed against Infantino in Switzerland. The court filings allege possible mismanagement of FIFA finances related to the value Infantino placed on an intended subsidiary that would run tournament commercial rights. That subsidiary was to be at least 20% owned by investors led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Days before this meeting, UEFA had detailed the criteria it wants for a candidate to challenge Infantino, describing a need for a "respected and unifying figure" following a meeting of its 55 member federations, while UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin confirmed he will seek re-election to a fourth term.
