Infantino ally insists Fifa president still has backing of most football associations

Mosengo-Omba – a close friend of Infantino’s from their university days in Switzerland, who was elected unopposed as Fecofa president in May – backed Infantino to stay on as president.

PRESSURE GAME: UEFA and two other confederations have held initial talks about organising competitions themselves amid the backlash against embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the Press Association understands. Pic: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

One of Gianni Infantino’s closest allies has said he would “take a bullet” for the Fifa president and is confident that he still has the overwhelming support of its all-powerful congress despite mounting pressure.

But Véron Mosengo-Omba, who served as Fifa’s chief member associations officer until 2021 and is now president of the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa), also criticised Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme that wanted to sell off more than 20% of the World Cup to private investors.

Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation have been increasing their efforts to oust Infantino since publishing an open letter calling for “leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it”.

That came after Fifa had accused Infantino’s opponents of launching a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president”. The Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, was sacked on Monday after criticising Infantino’s ill-fated plan.

As reported by the Guardian, Uefa has been seeking support from other confederations to call an emergency Fifa congress to trigger a vote of no confidence in Infantino, although there are serious doubts whether they have enough support to reach the threshold of 106 of the 211 Fifa members required to unseat him.

Mosengo-Omba – a close friend of Infantino’s from their university days in Switzerland, who was elected unopposed as Fecofa president in May – has admitted that he was against the controversial plan but backed Infantino to stay on as president.

“Most of the federations are supporting him. Just ask the congress,” he told the Guardian. “I didn’t send a letter of support [for Infantino] because I didn’t agree with the way the project was done. Now people are trying to attack Gianni but I’m ready to take a bullet for him.”

Mosengo-Omba added: “Gianni came with a proposal. Uefa is selling the Champions League and the Euros – they are independent companies. He was doing the same. Gianni came with a similar proposal but now he has withdrawn it. So what’s the problem? What I didn’t like and where I think Gianni committed a mistake was the way it was done. Because the risk was it could have seen a lot of [private] companies organising the World Cup. That is my reproach to him.” In partnership with the US bank JP Morgan, Infantino had planned for FFE to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling 21% of the World Cup’s commercial rights to investors, with promises of an increase in distribution of “over $10bn” (£7.5bn) then being redistributed back to Fifa’s 211 member associations.

Mosengo-Omba, who stepped down as general secretary of the Confederation of African Football in March after reaching the age limit, said that while the initial plan had been soundly rejected he is weighing up whether to propose another scheme that would see each confederation being offered the chance to buy a stake in the World Cup in order to generate more revenue for its members.

“Gianni’s project was good. I would buy it but make some changes,” he said. “You could, for example, say that a confederation can buy 20%. We could do that. That’s my idea – I could come with the proposal in the next congress, maybe. Because I need money to develop football in the Congo. The people here have nothing. We would get $20m a year if this happened and that can have a big impact in my country.”

Meanwhile FIFA’s decision to dismiss Lamour sends a “deeply troubling message to all of us seeking change”, UEFA vice-president Laura McAllister has said.

FIFA confirmed Lamour’s departure as chief operating officer on Monday evening, just over two weeks after he released a statement to the Associated Press saying the FIFA administration had been “deceived” by president Gianni Infantino over a plan to sell stakes in a World Cup company to private investors.

Lamour’s statement on July 31, along with the resignation of senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro earlier the same day, heaped further pressure on Infantino, with Lamour describing the private investor plan as “the project of one person”.

Now UEFA executive committee member McAllister, a former Wales captain who worked with Lamour at European football’s governing body when he was its deputy general secretary, has spoken out to criticise his sacking.

“I know Kevin Lamour to be an honourable and exemplary sports leader who was a trusted colleague of mine when I was first elected to UEFA Ex Co,” McAllister said in a statement.

“Kevin is not only a deeply principled leader who cares passionately for football, but a brave advocate for the values that should underpin all we do as custodians of our game.

“During the shabby events of the past weeks, he showed himself to be a courageous advocate for the most important stakeholders in football.

“Having worked with Kevin, I know that his leadership always operates on principles of respect, independence, transparency and sound governance.

“Kevin’s sacking seriously weakens FIFA’s administration, whilst undermining this unique opportunity to shift the culture at FIFA and to reset the organisation on sporting values, not simply commercial and financial ones. FIFA is not the president, it is the whole football family."

Guardian/PA