Infantino attends CFU meeting despite Concacaf objection

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic (CMC):

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has reportedly angered Concacaf President Victor Montagliani by attending a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) meeting at the weekend.

According to reports, multiple sources at the CFU meeting said several Concacaf members were infuriated by Infantino’s actions, particularly because he had been asked by the confederation’s president to stay away.

Infantino allegedly announced FIFA-funded development projects for the region worth millions of dollars that had been delayed for months.

In a letter addressed to Infantino on Friday, Montagliani asked him not to attend the CFU Challenge Series in the Dominican Republic, although the correspondence made no mention of the meeting itself.

According to Montagliani, Infantino’s presence would shift attention away from the regional Under-14 tournament being staged alongside the meeting.

“I believe that considering the governance crisis surrounding FIFA as a result of your controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, the media will focus on this situation, which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition,” the letter, which was obtained by multiple media outlets, stated.

“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.”

Despite the request, Infantino is understood to have arrived at the Punta Cana resort with a large FIFA delegation that included Secretary General Mattias Grafström and Elkhan Mammadov, a close ally responsible for maintaining relations with FIFA’s 211 member associations in his role as director of member associations.

The FIFA president has also come under pressure from other football leaders, with Montagliani joining his counterparts from European governing body UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation in calling for a re-evaluation of FIFA’s current leadership, saying their trust had been “broken through deception”.

The criticism followed Infantino’s advancement of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, which would allow private investment in the World Cup, including the sale of shares to investment group Thrive Eternal, founded by Josh Kushner.