Embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been accused of a potential abuse of power and conflict of interest after the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) filed formal complaints to two FIFA committees.
They revolve around three matters: Infantino’s aborted plan to open up the World Cup to private investors, the lifting of the suspension of US star Folarin Balogun at the 2026 World Cup following an intervention by Donald Trump, and FIFA’s awarding of a so-called Peace Prize to the US president.
The first filing made on Tuesday “asks the Ethics Committee to examine the conduct of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and any other individuals identified through the investigation for potential breaches of FIFA’s Code of Ethics”.
The second filing is aimed at FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) and “asks whether FIFA’s governance, financial oversight, internal controls and decision-making processes (have) worked as intended”.
Lise Klaveness, the NFF’s straight-talking president and longtime critic of Infantino, told The Times newspaper that Trump was the common thread in all three issues.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s brother Josh’s venture capital firm was to be the chief investor in the ill-fated FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan.
Infantino’s plan, launched just after this year’s hugely successful World Cup co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States in July would have allowed private investors to acquire stakes in a company created under the FFE initiative.
The backlash that followed led to Infantino making a humiliating climbdown within days.
“FIFA Forward Enterprise is a governance issue but it’s connected to the two other cases because (of) conflict of interest and abuse of position, potentially,” Klaveness told The Times.
“There is a line between all these three cases and it’s the same political regime.”
Klaveness, a former international footballer, said Infantino had some serious questions to answer over a lack of transparency.
Balogun’s red card in the last-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina during the World Cup resulted in an automatic suspension for the match with Belgium.
But FIFA stepped in and suspended his ban, leading to widespread condemnation, especially when it emerged that Trump had intervened by phoning Infantino.
The FIFA Peace Prize award that Infantino presented to Trump in December has been widely ridiculed.
“These are three very different factual cases, but they all have something in common that we want examined,” said Klaveness.
“Is it an abuse of power, an abuse of position? Is it a breach of political neutrality?
“Is it in accordance with the rules of governance, as the FIFA Council should be the strategic body, and the president shouldn’t really have any unilateral power?”
– ‘Misinformation campaign’ –
Klaveness, 45, had in August called upon Infantino to resign and forego his bid to be elected to a fourth and final term as president.
The 56-year-old Swiss has insisted he will seek re-election in Rabat next March and as yet no other candidate has declared.
Infantino, who was first elected in 2016, must secure a majority of the 211 votes from the organisation’s members in order to be re-elected.
The deadline to declare to run is November 18.
Klaveness has said she will not be a candidate — despite some observers, including Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, believing she would be a good fit as FIFA chief.
Aleksander Ceferin, president of European football’s governing body UEFA, has said he is not interested.
UEFA have been unsparing in their verbal assaults on Infantino and FIFA, dismissing the FFE plan as “a shady and opaque backroom deal”.
The likeliest rival is thought to be Canadian Victor Montagliani, president of CONCACAF, whose body along with UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have formed an anti-Infantino alliance.
However, while a swathe of UEFA’s members have publicly withdrawn their support for the 56-year-old Swiss, some of the AFC’s associations, such as 2034 World Cup hosts Saudi Arabia and 2022 hosts Qatar, have pledged their loyalty to him.
African football’s governing body CAF and South America’s CONMEBOL are also supportive.
UEFA has also gone to a court in Florida in an attempt to access documents related to Infantino’s failed plan with the aim of gathering evidence for a potential criminal complaint in Switzerland, where UEFA and FIFA are based.
The latter responded by accusing UEFA of a “misinformation campaign” and saying it was attempting to “influence” the election.
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