Portugal legend calls for Fifa president to stand down
‘Too late to save his dignity, not too late to save football’
The Portugal legend, Luís Figo, has described Gianni Infantino’s ill-fated scheme to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors as “the lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested behaviour I have ever witnessed” and called on the Fifa president to resign.
Infantino was forced to scrap his controversial proposal after a fierce backlash that was led by Uefa, with the 56-year-old now battling for his future having called an emergency meeting of Fifa staff on Wednesday as pressure on him mounts. On Tuesday, the Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, accused Fifa of blackmail by threatening to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president’s bid for re-election. That came after former Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, who is Fifa’s chief of global football development, issued a statement distancing himself from the plan that said the decision to withdraw it was “absolutely necessary and beyond question.”
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