Infantino has called crisis talks in Morocco after he has been accused of blackmail as pressure mounts on the FIFA president to step down after the withdrawal of the FFE scheme
Gianni Infantino has called senior FIFA officials to a crisis talk in Morocco as his position as president is seemingly under threat.
Following plans to sell £3.1billion in World Cup stakes, Infantino has been under harsh scrutiny with Jordan FA president Ali bin Hussein accusing him of blackmail in latest criticism.
It is believed that these accusations have triggered the emergency meeting.
The FIFA chief has since scrapped the proposals to sell stakes after several football associations declared they would boycott the World Cup if the plan went ahead.
UEFA and CONCACAF – the body for North and Central America and the Caribbean – have both made calls for Infantino to step down.
Jordan are the first Asian nation to do the same, taking the total number of countries urging Infantino to quit 91.
In order for the president to be ousted 106 nations need to back the motion.
Jordan’s Hussein argued that FIFA has “no shortage of issues”.
He said: “There is no shortage of issues regarding FIFA. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time.
“We are a small country with a minimal budget for our FA and had to deal with enormous hurdles.
“First, getting our fans into the USA: not all were granted visas, even though they had tickets – which we also know were sold at exorbitant prices.
“Secondly, we are being taxed by the US government through FIFA for our participation. Money that should go to players and staff.
“This was not the case for those who played and set up camp in Canada and Mexico. But we happened to be in the USA so now we face these huge costs in taxes for having participated.
“Thirdly we have been waiting for reward money for our players since December for the Arab Cup in Qatar, which is a FIFA event.
“The money our team should receive for having reached the final has not been delivered yet, while at the same time FIFA brags about how many billions they have in reserve.
“It is clear the problem really is with leadership. For months, FIFA has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters – until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out.
“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values. We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now.
“But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”
The rant from the Jordan FA president is the latest in a long line of condemnation Infantino has received since the plans were leaked last week.
The meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday as the organisation appears to be struggling internally.
Last week Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned as he described the FFE plan as a “bad deal for football”.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development, broke his silence on the plan on Tuesday and said its withdrawal was “absolutely necessary and beyond question”.
Wenger added: “I firmly believe in an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity.”
FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, the second most senior figure in the organisation after Infantino, also addressed the scheme in an email to FIFA staff labelling it a “sad and reproachable series of events…which thankfully concluded with the project being permanently abandoned”.
The Star have approached FIFA for comment.