FIFA president Gianni Infantino is facing increasing pressure to explain his participation in the failed European Super League initiative. Infantino has publicly denounced last month’s attempt at a breakaway competition to disrupt European football’s existing system.
Infantino, on the other hand, has been designated as “W01” by La Liga president Javier Tebas, a significant character listed in the Super League papers prepared by legal firm Clifford Chance.
According to sources at two other clubs interested in the scheme, they were persuaded to believe that FIFA was on board during discussions to join the Super League. The essential argument, they claim, is that the proponents of the idea would not have gone ahead with the split without some guarantee that this requirement would be met. Infantino’s stated position that he may have adopted in private has caused great consternation among a number of major European teams.
Infantino said, “At FIFA we have the obligation to speak to everyone, but we aren’t behind the Super League, in January I signed a statement making clear what we thought, the break with certain clubs was very clear for a long time, but we’re not going to kill the dreams of other clubs, a closed league is something FIFA stands against.”
According to sources, FIFA was the final major regulatory body to publicly reject the Super League following its launch. On April 20 and that night, Infantino came out against the ideas.
Some of the strategies used to persuade clubs to join the Super League have been revealed. When one major European club, say Club-1, was undecided about joining the breakaway league, a third party informed them that a rival, say Club-2 had done so, increasing the pressure on them to join. This third party has to be a credible organisation for the club to believe the claim. This brings yet another twist in the tale.
FIFA was approached for a comment on this. To the striking interest of the case, they have not yet responded. Even with Infantino’s claimed negations of his involvement, the points made against him have a significant amount of weight. Although it is still unclear whether FIFA had their part in this, according to the leads surfaced, their involvement can’t be ruled out.
