Gianni Infantino a no-show for meeting with European clubs

Gianni Infantino failed to turn up to a meeting in Doha on Friday between Europe's top clubs and FIFA as a key new agreement went unsigned.

FIFA had invited the European Club Association to hold a board meeting in Qatar during the World Cup, with the specific intention of signing off on a new Memorandum of Understanding to start from 1 January, when the existing MoU expires.

However, FIFA president Infantino was a no-show for the meeting, despite it taking place in the governing body’s hotel.

The MoU is an agreement covering the international match calendar, rules around the release of players from clubs for national team duty and payments to clubs for national team release.

Sources close to the matter were baffled as to why Infantino had "gone AWOL", but are confident the MoU will eventually be signed. However, there is now the possibility of the current agreement expiring without a new one being ready to kick in.

In theory it could mean clubs not releasing players for duty during the next international break in March if no framework exists under which they are obliged to do so, though that is considered unlikely.

The ECA said in a published summary of the meeting that FIFA’s deputy general secretary Mattias Grafstrom did attend, along with senior representatives from five of the continental confederations including UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis.

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Also present was Hassan Al Thawadi, the secretary general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee responsible for the organising of