The CEO of the English Football League, Richard Masters, said that FIFA President Gianni Infantino had “pressed the self-destruct button” because of his failed plan to introduce private investments into the World Cup.
This statement comes after Frenchman Kevin Lamour left his position as Director of Operations at FIFA, after last month he disagreed with the position of senior officials in world football’s governing body and issued a strongly worded statement criticizing Infantino for those plans.
The European Football Association is one of Infantino’s most prominent critics, and the English Football Association has withdrawn its support for the FIFA president.
Masters told the BBC: “This is a problem of FIFA’s own making. It is an injury that it inflicted on itself. The organization pressed the self-destruct button, and the repercussions of that are now being reflected in the solutions that must be found. I do not think that FIFA should ever think about selling a share of the World Cup.”
He continued: It is a non-profit organization, and in fact it should keep this tournament in trust for the future of football. I think it’s a bad idea and the FA have taken the right position regarding Gianni.
Regarding the possibility of the emergence of a competitor to Infantino, who will run for re-election next year, Masters said: I think that any consensus candidate who may emerge must put on his agenda reforming FIFA and perhaps even reforming the role of the president and how he interacts with these matters.
