Gianni Infantino has been forced to abandon plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors after UEFA, European football's governing body, threatened to boycott the tournament outright. Seeking answers, Debbie Hewitt, chair of the Football Association and a FIFA vice-president, has written formally to the FIFA president, demanding that every confidential document tied to the collapsed deal be made public before the council meeting scheduled for 15 October. Hewitt is also asking for the paperwork behind the decision to lift the World Cup suspension imposed on United States striker Folarin Balogun. Tellingly, that sanction was dropped out of the blue shortly after a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Infantino.
The affair points once again to the opacity of FIFA's internal processes. Infantino apologised back in August for the procedural failings surrounding the investor plan, and the governing council promised an investigation. Yet the organisation has still not confirmed who is actually carrying out that inquiry. Ultimately, the meeting on 15 October will determine whether FIFA's hidden documentation is finally opened up to football's governing bodies.
