Arsene Wenger says Fifa U-turn ‘necessary’ as pressure grows on Gianni Infantino

Arsene Wenger and Gianni Infantino’s number two have criticised the Swiss’ plan to seek private investment in a company to run the World Cup as pressure continues to ramp up on the Fifa president.

Former Arsenal manager Wenger, Fifa’s chief of global football development, issued a statement on Tuesday saying he was “not involved” in the plan but that the decision to withdraw it was “absolutely necessary and beyond question”.

Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, the second most senior figure in the organisation after Infantino, is also understood to have sent an email to Fifa staff addressing the “sad and reproachable series of events” of the last week “which thankfully concluded with the project being permanently abandoned”.

The plan to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company to run the commercial and operational aspects of Fifa’s tournaments, first emerged in reports by The Times and the Financial Times last Tuesday, before Fifa issued confirmation of some of the details. The most controversial aspect of the plan was the idea to sell 20 per cent of FFE to private investors.

The plan was firmly rejected by European football’s governing body Uefa, as well as CONCACAF – the confederation representing nations from North and Central America plus the Caribbean – and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Uefa also threatened to boycott Fifa competitions including the World Cup until the plan was scrapped, which it duly was last Saturday.

Uefa said it had nevertheless “lost confidence” in Infantino and a number of its associations – including those of England and Wales – have since formally withdrawn their support for Infantino, with the Scottish Football Association understood to be aligned to Uefa’s position.

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