BREAKING: UEFA writes to FIFA demanding answers on Gianni Infantino's tenure

Sky Sports News

BREAKING: Sky Sports News says UEFA has written to FIFA demanding answers on Gianni Infantino’s tenure

The video focuses on a UEFA letter to FIFA containing 42 questions across 12 topics and a request for an audio recording of last week’s FIFA Council meeting, amid UEFA’s loss of trust in Infantino. The conclusion is that UEFA wants him out, while the correspondent expects Infantino to resist and rely on member-association votes, with UEFA possibly backing a challenger.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT UEFA are increasing the pressure on Gianni Infantino and have sent FIFA an urgent letter demanding answers to 42 detailed questions about his presidency. The letter, which has been seen by Sky Sports News, was written today by UEFA secretary general Theodore Theodoridis and sent to his FIFA counterpart Mattias Grafstrom. Sky Sports News has also obtained a copy of the full list of 42 questions which cover 12 topics, including 10 alleged conflicts of interest, across 8 pages. Theodoridis gives FIFA two weeks to respond to UEFA’s long list of concerns, which were raised by European football leaders at the FIFA Council meeting in Zurich last Thursday. He begins by noting that Infantino acknowledged during the meeting that mistakes had been made but the explanations provided “have not begun satisfactorily to address a number of fundamental questions”. UEFA have also asked for an immediate audio recording of the meeting in another sign that they are demanding full transparency from FIFA. “These questions require answers now,” Theodoridis writes. “They cannot be deferred until the next meeting of the FIFA Council – nor can future governance reforms substitute for scrutiny of decisions already taken and accountability for them.” SkySportsNews SkySports football ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League…

Transcript

We start though with significant breaking news. We at Sky Sports News have obtained a letter written by UEFA's general secretary demanding serious answers from the FIFA president Jeani Infantino relating to governance and his decision-making. Our chief correspondent Carve Sol is with me. Right, you've seen the letter. What does it say? Well, it is a uh sort of devastating letter and it lays bare what is happening at the moment between UEFA and FIFA because make no mistake, UEFA wants Johnny Infantino to resign as FIFA president. They think he has no future in football. And this letter comes on the back of a FIFA council meeting in Zurich last Thursday. And basically at this meeting, Johnny Infantino tried to ride out all the scandals and controversies that have been dogging him. And during the meeting, he said, "Look, I accept some mistakes have been made. Uh, we're going to learn from those mistakes, and now's the time to move on." Well, UEFA's response today has been devastating because Theodor Theodoris, the secretary general of UEFA, has written a letter to his counterpart at FIFA, Matias Grafstrom. And in this letter, he notes the apparent apology that Johnny Infantino made last week, but basically he says that is not enough. We want answers. And what he's done is he has sent 42 questions to FIFA that he wants answered within two weeks. And I've seen those 42 questions. They run across eight pages. Uh there are 12 different topics and they're basically 42 questions which in reality are reasons why UEFA think that Johnny Infantino should resign. What more I can tell you about this letter is in the letter, UEFA asked for an audio recording of the FIFA Council meeting last week as well. So that tells you where relations are between UEFA and FIFA at the moment. When it comes to it, UEFA don't even trust FIFA. They're saying to them, send us a recording of that meeting because we want to have a record of everything that was said. >> Right. So 42 questions, you say boiled down into 12 topics. Let's have a look at those topics. Let's whiz through them one by one. So, question one, why did Infantino negotiate to sell off a stake in FIFA tournaments in secret? >> Yeah, there lots of questions about this. This is basically the infamous FIFA Forward Enterprise where Johnny Infantino was uh discussing selling off a 20% stake in FIFA tournaments to a group of US investors. Obviously, this all came out thanks to reporting by the times this summer and Johnny Infantino has abandoned the plan and acknowledged that mistakes were made, but this is not good enough for UEFA. UEFA are saying, "We want documents. We want evidence. We want all the paperwork. You have not provided that to us yet. We want you to come clean about what happened with this abandoned sell-off plan." >> Okay, that's one. Number two, will in the investigation into FIFA governance be independent? >> Okay, Johnny Infantino has said, "Look, I've learned mistakes were made. Going forward, we're going to have a review of how FIFA is run. This is not good enough for UEFA." Because UEFA are saying, you've been the president for 10 years. How can you now come out and say, "We need to change our governance when you've been in charge for 10 years. Actually, you came into power on a ticket of cleaning up FIFA." And so UEFA are asking questions about this very issue and saying is this uh uh review is this investigation actually going to be independent because if it's not it's going to be worthless. >> Well that's the next topic isn't it? Will the review into FIFA's member associations here we go review of funding of FIFA's member association. >> Okay. Well, this has to do uh with uh uh UEFA asking for a full explanation uh about the investment and exit assumptions of that selloff plan. So what they want to know is on what basis did FIFA propose to sell off a stake in all future FIFA tournaments and create a company that was going to have a valuation of $20 billion when we know that the World Cup this summer generated revenues of $15 billion. So the numbers don't add up. So, UEFA asking for evidence, asking for the documents about this abandoned sell-off plan. >> Right. Number four, development funding. Here we go. And use of FIFA's financial resources. >> Okay. So, basically what Johnny Infantino was saying, the sell-off plan, he was saying that had to be voted for by all the member associations. They had to approve it. And if uh if it came into being, if the sell-off plan happened, they would all get extra money. So what UEFA is saying now is, hang on a second, FIFA already has lots of money in its reserves. Why were you proposing to give them extra money on the back of this sell-off plan when you have all this money in your reserves? And you've just come out and said that all the members are going to get increased funding over the next three-year period, up from 10 uh million to $25 million. So, if you had all this money in the bank, why did you need to try and sell off a 20% stake in your tournaments? >> Number five, why did Infantino receive 1.3 million pounds payment in 2024 on top of his £4 million salary? >> Exactly. UEFA want answers about this. Uh according to uh documents filed in the US uh Johnny Infantino received a payment of 1.3 million pounds in 2024 from the company that was organizing this summer's World Cup. Now FIFA have said very very clearly this was not a second salary. So what was it? Ufa was saying please explain why did he get this payment. >> Okay. Uh six. Why was Farin Balagan allowed to play when he was suspended? >> Exactly. This was one of the biggest scandals of the summer. Everybody knows the story. He uh was supposed to be suspended against Belgium. Then President Trump called Johnny Infantino. And then hey presto Balagan played UEFA want an explanation. What did President Trump say to Johnny Infantino? And what if anything did Johnny Infantino do to uh make sure that Balagan played? Johnny Infantino says he did nothing. But UEFA want to know did you interfere in the disciplinary process >> staying at the World Cup? Why was there a 27 minute World Cup final halftime show? >> Very good question. I was there. I don't understand why. Halime is supposed to be 15 minutes. Those are the laws of the game. It was 27 minutes because there were there was Justin Bieber, there was Madonna. There was I don't know a K-pop band as well. UEFA. I know this is a little bit trivial, but these are the questions that Yeah, these are the questions that fans are asking and UEFA is saying we want an answer from FIFA because we haven't had one yet. >> Eight. Another answer. Elector electoral integrity and independence of FIFA's judicial bodies. >> Okay, this is very serious because obviously we're going to have a FIFA presidential election in March in Morocco next year. UEFA are thinking about putting forward a candidate, somebody who can challenge Gianni Infantino. But in this list of questions, they seem to have doubts about whether the electoral process is going to be fair and independent. And they also seem to have doubts, concerns regarding the independence of the impartiality of the FIFA electoral committee. >> Right. Nine. Presidential expenditure and financial oversight. >> Okay. UEFA say there have been loads of reports in the media for a very very long time that Johnny Infantino uses a private jet provided by Qatar Airways. They want details uh a detailed account of the relevant expenditure including accounts purposes authorization procedures and compliance with FIFA's applicable financial and travel policies. So they want Johnny Infantino to be transparent about what is going on. Why does he apparently get this private jet provided by Qatar Airways? >> 10. World Cup expenditure and allocation of privileges. >> Again, this one might seem a little bit trivial, but a lot of people at the highest level of football are beused by the fact that at the World Cup final, celebrities were getting VIP and VVIP seats. and the presidents of football associations around the world and also uh for instance secretary generals of continental confederations weren't getting that hospitality and weren't getting those seats. So what was going on there? They want transparency. Please tell us why were these celebrities getting the VV VIP treatment and not some of the leaders of world football? >> This is one I want an answer to. Number 11, President Trump's FIFA Peace Prize. >> Okay, they want to know what was going on here. What was that? What was what was the FIFA Peace Prize? Whose idea was it? Whose idea was it to give it to President Trump? Now, FIFA last week at the council meeting said they were going to have a review. And from what I can tell, this peace prize is going to be scrapped. So, President Trump won the first one and the last one. I would be very, very surprised if we ever saw another FIFA Peace Prize. But still, UEFA think FIFA have serious questions to answer about what was going on with that prize. >> Absolutely. 12. The final one. Conflicts of interest. >> Okay. There are 10 alleged conflicts of interest listed in this list of 42 questions. We don't have time to go through all of them. I've picked out three uh for you. The first one is UEFA want to know why are FIFA paying $4 million to rent out an office in New York in Trump Tower? and they say this uh office doesn't seem to be used very much. Question two, uh why was the US president and individuals associated with him in talks about setting up a FIFA cryptocurrency? And the third one I've picked out for you, why was the World Cup draw moved at the last minute? You remember it was supposed to be in Las Vegas and then it ended up being in Washington at the JFK Donald Trump center. I was there. It was far too small. It was far too cramped. People were scratching their heads thinking why was it moved uh to President Trump's doorstep when it should have been in Las Vegas. >> Okay. So, 42 questions, 12 topics. Tell me why that date is significant. Well, in a letter from UEFA to FIFA, they have said, "We want answers to these 42 questions in two weeks time. Two weeks today." And they don't don't want just throwaway answers. They want detailed answers, document, and evidence. And I reckon the reason they've picked this date is there's another date coming as well, the 18th of November. That is the date when you have to declare if you want to stand against Johnny Infantino to be the FIFA president. And I think what this is heading towards is obviously I don't think uh UEFA are going to get the answers they want by the 2nd of November. So what is their next step going to be? Are we going to see a challenger emerge? A challenger who is backed by UEFA. We will see. Um so all of this is about trying to get him to resign. He's not You've stood there with me countless times and said that bloke's not resigning. He's not going to resign, is he? >> He's not going to resign because he's done the maths. He spends a lot of time flying all around the world visiting the member associations, the FAS who still support him. And don't forget there are 211 member associations in FIFA. To be elected president, you need the support of 106. And he's already got the support of all of Africa. That is 54. So he only needs the support of what another 52 member associations from around the world. And he is reelected president next year. That is what he's banking on. He's going to try and ride this out. But if you've got time, get online onto the Sky Sports website, read all the 42 questions because they are devastating for Giani Infantino. Of course, in the interests of fairness, we have contacted FIFA to see if they have any comment to make and of course they will be replying to the letter and we'll do our best to get a copy of that letter and report on it. >> Look forward to that. Carve Sol our chief correspondent. Carve brilliant.