French FA says “serious questions remain” on FIFA’s governance after World Cup sell-off crisis | OneFootball

Just under a day after the unveiling of Zinédine Zidane as the new head coach of France’s national team last Tuesday, the French FA (Fédération Française de Football) was left facing an unexpected crisis. 

FFF President Philippe Diallo reacted to Gianni Infantino’s plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, revealed by The Times, in a series of interviews French outlets (L’Équipe, France Inter). He spoke of a “worrying” project and highlighted the lack of details made available to FA heads. 

Infantino’s sell-off project was eventually withdrawn in the wake of widespread backlash, with UEFA notably threatening a boycott of FIFA competitions after an emergency meeting held last Thursday. UEFA has maintained its boycott threat this week, insisting that it had lost confidence in Infantino leadership.

While several European FAs published statements backing up UEFA’s stance in the wake of last week’s meeting, the FFF has not publicly commented on the situation since last Wednesday. In the meantime, L’Équipe have reported that Emmanuel Macron’s office has directly intervened to encourage Diallo to toughen his stance.

The FAs of England, Wales, and Croatia have notably withdrawn their support for Infantino, while Norway’s Lise Klaveness went as far as calling for the FIFA chief’s resignation. Mexico and Argentina, meanwhile, are among the non-European FAs to have publicly backed Infantino in the last few days.

Get French Football News approached the FFF to ask about its stance earlier this week and received a response which was critical of FFE and FIFA’s governance. However, it also stopped short of calling for Infantino’s departure or formally withdrawing its support.

“Philippe Diallo played a leading role alongside his European counterparts and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin in ensuring that European football adopted a firm collective position on the project put forward by Gianni Infantino.”

“While this proposal [FFE] has now been abandoned, serious questions remain regarding FIFA’s governance,” the FFF explained. “[President] Philippe Diallo believes that its current governance is no longer commensurate with the responsibilities and challenges facing world football’s governing body.”

“Beyond this specific matter, FIFA must undertake a profound transformation of its governance and allow for genuine democratic debate within the organisation. FIFA must uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency. Philippe Diallo believes this is no longer sufficiently the case today.”

French football’s governing body went on to explain that Diallo, who has been in charge of French football since 2023, would be “advocating for greater transparency, democracy, and accountability in the coming weeks.”

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin