SoccerGlobal issues
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SoccerGlobal issueshttps://p.dw.com/p/5ILBK
The Jordanian football association president on Tuesday accused FIFA and Gianni Infantino of attempted ‘blackmail’ and of withholding prize money in a scathing statement.
FIFA chief Infantino has come under serious pressure over a failed plan to open the World Cup to private investment. Prince Ali bin Hussein, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the FIFA presidency, said the Jordanian FA was still waiting to be paid for reaching last year’s FIFA Arab Cup final. Prince Ali lost to Sepp Blatter in the 2015 FIFA presidential election, and was then third the following year behind Infantino and Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa.
Infantino, who succeeded Blatter in 2016, was widely expected to be re-elected as FIFA president for a fourth term next March but his position is now under threat.
Earlier Tuesday, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development, and world football’s governing body’s secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom both criticized Infantino’s handling of the scrapped investor plan. Several of UEFA’s member associations — Wales, Finland, Sweden and Serbia — have withdrawn their letters of support for Infantino and the English FA is strongly rumored to be on the verge of also joining them.
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