FAI officially withdraw support for Gianni Infantino as FIFA President

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has officially withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino in the upcoming FIFA presidential elections next year.

The FIFA president has been under huge pressure since reports emerged that he attempted to create a new company to run the Men’s and Women’s World Cups and sell stakes in it to private investors, essentially selling the World Cup.

The organisation announced that they withdrew those plans, but insisted that Infantino still has the backing from FIFA’s board members.

However, UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF have all now publicly called out the Swiss’ actions, with UEFA still threatening to boycott the FIFA World Cup if there’s no change.

The next FIFA presidential election is next March, and Infantino initially announced he was running for what would be a fourth term, after receiving special dispensation to override the three-term limit. He had initially received letters of support from nearly all of the 211 FIFA member associations, but that number is now dropping.

The Welsh FA were the first to withdraw their support, followed by the English FA and many others across Europe. And now, the FAI have officially withdrawn their support.

"The Football Association of Ireland confirms that it has withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino to be re-elected as FIFA President," the association said in a statement.

"Following an FAI Board Meeting, the decision was taken to rescind the letter of support that the Association supplied earlier this year. It has since written to FIFA to explain its reasoning. 

"The Association is grateful for the support that FIFA provides to Irish football, but recent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation.

"Considering the governance challenges that the FAI has had to overcome in recent years, the Association feels a particular obligation to advocate for and uphold best practice."

*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.