English FA Withdraws Support for Infantino
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- The English FA is set to write to FIFA withdrawing support for Infantino, following the Welsh FA's public withdrawal, while the Scottish FA's position is aligned with UEFA's lack of confidence
- UEFA is threatening legal action and ordered Infantino to preserve all documents — emails, WhatsApp, Signal, Teams, Slack, SMS, written correspondence and meeting notes — related to the scrapped FFE plan
- Infantino offered all 211 FIFA member associations $40m (£30m) each to back the proposal, with a September 19 deadline to access an initial $20m
- Thrive Eternal, the American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner (brother of US President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner), was expected to lead the proposed investor group in the new commercial subsidiary
- Support is geographically split: Serbia and Finland have withdrawn backing while Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait and Sri Lanka pledged support; the AFC stands in solidarity with UEFA and Concacaf
- Infantino needs 106 of 211 votes for re-election in March; an emergency FIFA Council meeting could be triggered if 19 of 37 council members demand one, with UEFA holding nine of those seats
Why it matters: Infantino needs 106 of 211 votes for re-election in March, and the British associations plus Serbia and Finland are now publicly peeling away. UEFA and Concacaf alone control 90 combined votes — short of the threshold to unseat him, but enough to make his path to a fourth term far harder if any African or South American associations follow. The September 19 deadline for the $20m sweetener has already passed, meaning the carrot strategy failed.
