French FA accuses Infantino of ‘seriously damaging’ football as it withdraws support

The French Football Federation’s president, Philippe Diallo, said Gianni Infantino had “seriously damaged the image and the unity of football” as he announced the end of France’s support for the Fifa president’s re-election.

The FFF’s executive committee unanimously voted on Thursday to withdraw its backing, which had been formalised at the end of June. Diallo referred to “events during the World Cup” which had “flagrantly gone against the way we believe our sport should be run” and to Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan, which was revealed in July and scrapped after a widespread backlash.

During the World Cup the suspension of the US forward Folarin Balogun was overturned by Fifa after lobbying from Donald Trump. The US president said he called Infantino to recommend that Balogun be allowed to play. Fifa has said the decision taken by its disciplinary committee was “a balanced measure” and “based on an explicit provision of the applicable regulations”.

Diallo outlined the reasons for the loss in confidence: “From July onwards, the conditions which led to us to support his candidacy had been disrupted. Does the withdrawal of the [sell-off] project solve the issue? I don’t think so. His initiatives during and after the World Cup have seriously damaged the image and the unity of football. As a result, we believe that trust has been broken.”

Diallo said of the initial decision to support Infantino: “It would be wrong to say that certain developments in football were not made under his mandate.” But he added: “When you are making changes to the game itself, in a unilateral and opaque fashion to sell our shared asset, that changes our appreciation.

“France is one of the founding members of Fifa, and as such we have a historical legitimacy to intervene when we feel that Fifa and its president are deviating from our vision of how world football should be run. We also have sporting legitimacy, as one of the top three teams in the world rankings over the last 10 years. We wanted to make it clear that we refuse to go in a direction which does not correspond to the general interest of our sport.”

When reports of the sell-off project came to light, the FFF expressed “doubts and deep concerns”. Uefa threatened a boycott of Fifa competitions and several European countries, including Wales and England, withdrew their support for Infantino but the FFF had not until Thursday publicly disavowed him.

Diallo indicated France would play an active part in Uefa’s search for an alternative candidate for the Fifa presidency before the 18 November deadline. The election will take place in March during Fifa’s next congress.

Before then, Diallo said, the FFF would reach out to figures it considers experts in “transparency and good governance” in football and beyond as part of France’s “contribution to the debate”, as it pushes for “far-reaching reform” of Fifa.

He cited Kevin Lamour, the former Fifa chief operating officer who was dismissed after criticising the sell-off plan, as one of the people the FFF would look to consult.