Infantino apologized following the massive storm: "It should have been handled differently"

International pressure has broken the world football leadership: following the European boycott and the wave of sharp criticism, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Mattias Grafström jointly published an official letter to the associations in which they expressed "sincere apologies for the mistakes" in managing the controversial plan to privatize percentages of the World Cup. The letter was sent on Wednesday at the end of a dramatic emergency meeting that lasted about 7 hours in Rabat, Morocco.

In the official letter, the two admitted that the proposal, which was exposed in the media and sparked mass outrage, "should have been handled differently." Following the total collapse of the initiative, FIFA announced its official withdrawal from the project. However, in another public statement published on the organization's website, FIFA chose to send a direct threat against the critics and clarified:

"We will no longer tolerate any attacks on our integrity, good governance, and due process, and we will take all necessary measures to protect our name and the good name of the organization."

The secret deal and the final promise to Morocco

The letter comes at a time when Infantino is fighting for his political survival against growing demands for his resignation. Yesterday, a secret deal concocted in Morocco was revealed: Infantino promised senior officials of the association in Morocco the hosting of the 2030 World Cup final match at the new "Hassan II" stadium in Casablanca, which is planned to hold 115,000 seats and be the largest in the world.

The dramatic promise to the Moroccans comes at the expense of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid, which until now was considered the leading candidate to host the final. Infantino, who fears losing support from Saudi Arabia (which will host the 2034 World Cup), is trying to buy the loyalty of the Moroccan association at a critical moment in his career. This follows the resignation of his senior advisor Carlos Cordeiro on Friday, who claimed it was a "bad and irresponsible deal," while heads of associations around the world accused the president of "extortion."

Internal investigation in the FIFA Council

Although Grafström and the organization's management declared "full support" for Infantino at the end of the meeting in Morocco, the affair is far from over. FIFA has committed to conducting a comprehensive internal review of all the failures in the affair and will submit an official report of findings to the next meeting of the FIFA Council, which consists of 37 representatives from all over the globe. While demands for his resignation reach political levels, Infantino will try to use his allies in Africa and Asia to hold on to the chair.