‘Cronyism’ talk dogs FIFA ahead of UEFA election
Infantino says he’s neutral
GENEVA — After declaring FIFA’s image crisis over four months ago, questions are being raised about Gianni Infantino as he heads to world soccer’s next big election.
The FIFA president will be a guest in Athens on Wednesday as his former UEFA colleagues vote to replace Michel Platini, who was ousted after the FIFA ethics committee banned him for taking a $2 million payment from Sepp Blatter.
The favourite to become the next UEFA president is Aleksander Ceferin of Slovenia, who was so little known before the campaign that many wonder if Infantino and his staff have intervened to support him. Ceferin will be up against UEFA vice-president Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, an outspoken critic of Blatter in recent years.
“I am neutral. The FIFA president is neutral in any election at confederation level,” Infantino said. “This is very clear.”
Infantino said his staff also has not acted, dismissing reports in Dutch and Scandinavian media that one of his FIFA advisers, who is from Norway, has lobbied for Ceferin. Van Praag reportedly sought a meeting in May in Milan to ask Infantino if he had chosen sides.
Ceferin’s campaign for UEFA president emerged in May, soon after Infantino joined his former UEFA colleagues on a trip to Slovenia to open a national soccer centre. Weeks later, FIFA appointed Tomaz Vesel as an independent auditor overseeing its billion-dollar annual income — and Infantino’s salary and bonuses. Vesel is also from Slovenia and plays on a veterans’ soccer team with Ceferin.
Mark Pieth, a former FIFA reform adviser, said he was skeptical of claims that Infantino has changed the FIFA culture after years of scandal and murky decision-making.
“There is no ‘new FIFA,’” Pieth said. “It’s a bit of a variation on what we have been used to. Here, it’s blatant cronyism.”
UEFA is the richest and most influential of soccer’s six continental bodies. It organizes the Champions League, which showcases most of the world’s best players.
The next UEFA president will serve the final 2 1/2 years of Platini’s term. The winner also becomes a FIFA vice-president, helps shape strategy in the FIFA Council, and supports Infantino in urgent rulings made by the confederation heads.
Van Praag, a former club president of four-time European champion Ajax, is an election veteran compared to Ceferin. He opposed Blatter for the FIFA presidency in 2015, defying a UEFA strategy to unseat the incumbent but struggled to get support from his colleagues. He withdrew days before the vote.
Ceferin, a criminal lawyer, joined the board of Olimpija Ljubljana before being elected Slovenian soccer federation president in 2011. He later joined the FIFA disciplinary committee.