Jordan FA president Prince Ali bin Hussein has accused Fifa president Gianni Infantino of “blackmail” after his foiled plans to sell stakes in the World Cup.
Infantino was forced to abandon his plans – namely to sell stakes in the World Cup and other Fifa tournaments to private investors – after public uproar last week.
European football’s governing body Uefa even confirmed a boycott of the World Cup and other Fifa competitions, saying its member nations would not take part if Infantino’s plan was voted through. The Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, which represents 41 nations from North and Central America and the Caribbean, backed Uefa in their stance.
Now, a few days on and with the FA set to withdraw their support for Infantino’s re-election next year, Prince Ali – who lost to Infantino in the 2016 presidential election – has accused the Fifa president of creating a situation which “amounts to blackmail.”
“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values,” he posted on X. “We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”
Detailing the myriad of problems Fifa have faced over the last few months, Prince Ali detailed: “There is no shortage of issues regarding Fifa. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time.
“We are a small country with a minimal budget for our FA and had to deal with enormous hurdles. First, getting our fans into the USA: not all were granted VISAS, even though they had tickets -which we also know were sold at exorbitant prices. Secondly, we are being taxed by the US govt through Fifa for our participation. Money that should go to players and staff.
“This was not the case for those who played and set up camp in Canada and Mexico. But we happened to be in the USA, so now we face these huge costs in taxes for having participated.
“Thirdly, we have been waiting for reward money for our players since December for the Arab Cup in Qatar, which is a Fifa event. The money our team should receive for having reached the final has not been delivered yet, while at the same time Fifa brags about how many billions they have in reserve.”
Prince Ali added that he, nor the Jordanian FA, endorse Infantino for re-election next year.
“It is clear the problem really is with leadership,” he said. “For months, Fifa has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters- until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out.
“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values. We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”
Despite calls for Infantino to stand down, the Fifa president himself has not spoken since the withdrawal of his proposals last Saturday.
