‘He has lied’: Figo breaks ranks with FIFA legends as Infantino digs in
Updated . First published
Gianni Infantino is rallying support from senior executives to remain FIFA president after a meeting in Morocco, but pressure on him is continuing to mount after Luis Figo became the first legendary former player to call for his head.
Infantino has been heavily criticised since he announced he was abandoning his plan to sell a stake of the commercial rights of all major FIFA run competitions, and he has lost the support of Portuguese icon Figo as a result.
Gianni Infantino and Luis Figo Harold Cunningham
Figo has long been a member of FIFA’s Legends program - an initiative to use former superstars like Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane and Australia’s Tim Cahill as ambassadors to promote the sport - but despite the money he is paid and the special privileges he is given by FIFA for playing that role, he has broken ranks to call out the “lies and deception” of Infantino that have come at the “expense of the game”.
“Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game he is supposed to serve,” Figo wore on X.
“He has lost the support of his senior staff, his closest advisers, the vast majority of people who devote their lives to this sport and even, it would seem, the FIFA Peace Prize winner [US President Donald Trump].
“He should go. Now.”
Infantino has frequently posted images with those in the Legends program on social media, and Australian great Craig Foster applauded Figo’s courage, saying the program must not “come with any strings attached”.
“Former players can no longer pretend that involvement in the Legends program or other FIFA-related or managed player initiatives, comes without a quid-pro-quo,” he wrote on X.
“(It) certainly can not come with a duty to be silent while the game is used and abused. Silence is the price, but it doesn’t have to be.
“The legends hold the power to constitute the program any way they see fit. In fact, the FIFA Legends should be the program of and for those always ready to protect the game for future generations of players and fans.”
Meanwhile, FIFA acknowledged that “mistakes” had been made when discussing the fallout of the failed investment plan in a meeting that was held in Rabat, Morocco, on Wednesday (AEST).
A number of member associations have spoken out against Infantino and withdrawn support for him as FIFA president. He is reportedly feeling “isolated”.
In a statement released by world football’s governing body, FIFA conceded it should have adopted a different process for its investment plan proposal and apologised for making member associations “feel excluded”.
FIFA added that errors were made when the plan was made public by the media.
“An apology was made for these errors together with a commitment to ensure they do not happen again,” a statement from FIFA on Thursday read.
“A review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting.”
FIFA concluded the statement by acknowledging that the organisation “will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity or good governance”. FIFA is committed to ensuring it will “safeguard its name and reputation”.
“The outcomes of today’s meeting will strengthen FIFA’s governance, help restore confidence in the organisation and enable us to prepare for the major events and challenges ahead in a united and transparent manner while continuing our mission to develop the game around the world,” the statement said.
Infantino, 56, still has a tough road ahead of him before the next election in March, with several member associations publicly losing faith in his leadership.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is one of the latest to lose confidence in Infantino, saying “it is too late to save his dignity, but it is not too late to save football.”
Infantino and Trump await to present Spain with their medals AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
But FIFA has promptly shut down reports of Infantino’s attempts to regain support.
Reports published before the meeting in Rabat that Infantino had promised Morocco the rights to host the 2030 World Cup final in exchange for supporting him in his role were deemed by FIFA to be “false and misleading”.
FIFA also denied reports by the New York Post that Infantino had repeatedly tried but failed to reach US President Donald Trump via a phone call for support.
The pair had formed a close relationship since it was announced the United States would be hosting the Club World Cup and the World Cup.
Infantino and Trump have been seen at several major football events together. Trump even received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize from the FIFA president last year.
The Peace Prize raised concern within the football community and those fears have only grown after Trump’s ties to Infantino’s sell-off plan was revealed.
To add to the list of dilemmas Infantino is still facing, FIFA has also been accused of blackmailing Jordan’s national team by withholding their prize money won during the FIFA Arab Cup that was played last December.
Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, who served on FIFA’s executive committee from 2011-15, made the claim on X.
Prince Ali noted that FIFA has continued to “brag about how many billions they have in reserve” while his team waits for that payment.
He also criticised the difficulty Jordan’s fans faced securing visas to watch their team debut at this year’s World Cup despite paying the “exorbitant ticket prices” and how the team was taxed by the US government via FIFA for competing in the event.
Due to those issues and Infantino’s failed sell-off plan, Prince Ali said he could not endorse Infantino as a leader any further.
“For months, FIFA has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out,” he wrote on X.
“It is clear the problem really is with leadership ... the whole situation amounts to blackmail, and we refuse to give in to that.”
The Athletic is also reporting that host cities from the FIFA Club World Cup last year are still waiting for their $1.4 million AUD payments promised by Infantino.
A request has been lodged by some host cities for an update on those payments.
It has been reported that FIFA generated a record-breaking $21b in revenue at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
