European football leaders were gathering with time pressing to find a candidate and shape their strategy for trying to oust Gianni Infantino as president of FIFA.
Infantino’s divisive World Cup private investment plan — that failed within days of being revealed in July — pushed UEFA to act on long-standing mistrust of its former employee’s increasingly executive presidency at FIFA. UEFA’s longer term plans include preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for possible financial mismanagement in the World Cup sell-off deal, and has asked courts in the United States to authorize discovery of evidence. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was joined in August by his fellow FIFA vice presidents from Asia and North America in denouncing Infantino for deception and breach of trust over the World Cup sell-off plan.
“Somewhere along the way things went too far with FIFA, and we’re looking to put things back where they belong,” UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said last month. Ceferin has long dismissed any talk of himself running to lead FIFA, though he said last month at UEFA meetings in Greece there were “many, many” potential candidates.