Infantino Urged to Skip Youth Tournament Amid FIFA Crisis
Gianni Infantino has been urged to stay away from a youth tournament in the Dominican Republic this weekend, as the political storm around his leadership of Fifa spills onto the touchline.
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, who is also a Fifa vice-president, has written to Infantino asking him not to attend the CFU Under-14 Series, warning that his presence would drag the focus away from the football and back onto the crisis engulfing the world governing body.
Concacaf chief: ‘In the name of football, reconsider’
In a letter seen by the BBC, Montagliani pointed directly at the “governance crisis surrounding Fifa” and told Infantino that turning up at the Caribbean youth event would “unfortunately undermine the technical nature” of the competition.
“The media will focus on this situation, which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition,” he wrote, before making a pointed appeal.
“As such, I respectfully ask you in the name of football to reconsider your attendance as it will unfortunately undermine the technical nature of this important youth development activity.”
The message is stark: for Concacaf’s president, the politics around Infantino have become so toxic that even a grassroots tournament risks becoming collateral.
Warm welcome, cold politics
Infantino had been invited as a guest of the Dominican Republic, with that invitation understood to have been issued before his controversial Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal detonated into public view and left his position under serious pressure.
On the ground, he has been warmly received. The Dominican Republic’s minister of sports and recreation, Kelvin Cruz, hailed the visit in a statement that underlined what Infantino’s presence still means in many parts of the world.
“We deeply appreciate your visit to the Dominican Republic, without doubt that your presence in our country puts us on the international football radar and opens us great prospects for growth and development of Dominican football,” Cruz said.
The tournament itself is one of several development projects bankrolled by Fifa through its Fifa Forward programme, the same overarching framework under which the now-abandoned FFE idea was floated.
Fallout from FFE proposal
Infantino has been heavily criticised over the FFE plan, which sought to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors. The proposal has since been scrapped, but the damage to his standing has not been so easy to erase.
A number of national associations have pulled their backing for the Swiss-Italian administrator. In a sharply worded open letter, Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation accused him of breaking trust “through deception”.
Tensions escalated further when Fifa dismissed senior executive Kevin Lamour after he criticised Infantino. That decision has drawn its own wave of condemnation and deepened concerns about governance inside the organisation.
Power base holds in South America and Africa
Even as support fractures in parts of Europe, North and Asia, Infantino still has powerful allies. South American confederation Conmebol continues to back him, as does Caf, the African governing body.
So a youth tournament in the Caribbean, designed to showcase the next generation, now sits at the crossroads of a global power struggle. Whether Infantino heeds Montagliani’s request or walks out at the CFU Under-14 Series could say plenty about how this crisis plays out from here.
