Infantino defies CONCACAF and accuses wealthy nations of not narrowing football’s gap

Infantino said this on the sidelines of a meeting with members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), in the Dominican Republic. 

Initially, Infantino had been asked by the CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani to stay away from the CFU U14 tournament as this would overshadow the kids’ tournaments, given the standoff between him and the Confederation. 

Infantino says there appears to be reluctance from wealthy nations to see their poorer counterparts closing the gap...

"It's important to have dialogue and to express one's views and opinions. I feel very happy with all the support I get here because this is our job - to grow football in every country, some unfortunately don't want to see other nations grow. We need to narrow the gap between the big countries and all the others. We need to give all the others opportunities and investment."

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The fall-out between Infantino and Montagliani, who is also the FIFA Vice-President, and has been touted as the candidate for the FIFA presidential position, comes from the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) idea of the Swiss-Italian citizen. CONCACAF, UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) led the opposition to this FFE proposal, and it died a natural death before there were any discussions. 

Infantino is now clearly banking on the support of the less well-off member associations around the world as he seeks another term that would keep him in power until 2031. 

He seems to be banking on the support from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and CONMEBOL (South American) block. Infantino’s move to attend the CFU U14 tournament appears to be part of a plan to deal directly with the federations and sideline confederations like CONCACAF.

Yesterday, member associations from the Nordic region in Europe, namely Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Faroe Islands, issued a joint statement calling for Infantino’s resignation. However, it’s not something that seems to be bothering the FIFA President, as he pushes ahead with his plans...

"I always say that us football administrators talk too much, sometimes we must talk less and let the ball do all the talking. We will organise for the first time in FIFA history a u/15 tournament and all the 211 countries of FIFA are invited. That's why we need resources, sponsors and broadcasters and whatever we can get in order to reinvest back into the game, so that we can have a truly global game in every corner of the world."

Despite CAF’s statement backing him, Infantino is yet to receive public support from most African member associations, with only a few having done so. It remains to be seen if his next stop will be in Africa.