It's extra time at FIFA

**Ed Butler** (0:01)
One opposing team is pressing its case.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
Sadly to say, I think power has gone to his head.

**Ed Butler** (0:07)
They're crowding the box.

**Luis Figo** (0:09)
Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game. He should go now.

**Ed Butler** (0:19)
Can FIFA's president defend his own goal? That's World Business Report from the BBC.
I'm Ed Butler, and tonight we will be talking with another former FIFA executive as the embattled Gianni Infantino holds crisis talks in Morocco. Also in the show, how a record drought is cutting rail freight in Europe and why the Saudi crown prince is buying one of the world's top video game developers.
The FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been meeting senior leaders of football's world governing body today in what's been widely described as a crisis meeting. Criticism has certainly intensified by the day. In the last couple of weeks over, his now scrapped plan to sell off part of FIFA's commercial and event operations. The former Portugal, Real Madrid and Barcelona superstar Luis Figo, for example, who stood for the FIFA presidency in 2015, was today calling for Infantino to resign in no uncertain terms. His tweet was written on X and is read now by a BBC producer.

**Luis Figo** (1:36)
Today, I join others from across our game and call for Gianni Infantino to resign as FIFA president.
Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game he's supposed to serve. He's lost the support of his senior staff, his closest advisers, the vast majority of people who devote their lives to this sport and even, it would seem, the FIFA Peace Prize winner. It is too late to save his dignity, but it is not too late to save football. He should go now.

**Ed Butler** (2:11)
Well, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has also weighed in despite being the joint host of the recent World Cup. Mr Carney has said he too has lost confidence in Mr Infantino.

**Mark Carney** (2:22)
Certainly, I don't have confidence in Mr Infantino after this point, given what transpired and given the nature of what transpired.
Look, I'll give you an example. Carlos Cordero is someone I've known for more than three decades, a very high integrity individual, and he was his advisor and had expertise in all the aspects of what was proposed. And he was not consulted.

**Ed Butler** (2:48)
Well Alexandra Addison is a former member of the FIFA Governance Committee based in Canada too. She's also president of Trace International Incorporated, an organisation that focuses on anti-bribery compliance and good governance.
Hello Alexandra. So Mr Infantino, he's today meeting his critics. It's a clear the air meeting. His team are calling it constructive, a positive meeting. I mean, he's doing his best to appease everyone, isn't he?

**Alexandra Addison** (3:18)
Yeah, I think that's in the category of too little, too late. Just when you think FIFA has reached a new low water mark, they surprise you.

**Ed Butler** (3:25)
Really? I mean, what's he actually done? Where is he precisely point to the smoking gun in this plan that he cooked up to raise all this money and sell off part of the rights for future World Cups?

**Alexandra Addison** (3:39)
Well, cooked up is the right expression. He came up with this, it seems almost entirely on his own, or at least with no transparency at all, not checking in with his advisors, not sharing the information with the stakeholders, the FAs and others, and then rolled it out. Well, inadvertently, I guess, when there was a leak, with no justification, FIFA doesn't need the money. So selling off one of their greatest treasures for no apparent reason requires at a minimum an explanation. And so there's so much suspicion of the organization already that the assumption is he's trying to circumvent term limits, he's gonna have to leave in 2031, and wouldn't this be a fabulous segue into the nicest private role in the soccer world?

**Ed Butler** (4:28)
Right. So what you mean, he's setting up this new body in order to lead it, even after he ceases to be president of FIFA. That's the idea.

**Alexandra Addison** (4:36)
Yeah, it looks that way. We have no idea because there's no transparency. That's exactly the problem. But people will assume the worst of FIFA, because that's always been a pretty reliable position.
But the lack of transparency means everybody is left to devise their own theories.

**Ed Butler** (4:54)
Right. OK, so FIFA doesn't need the money, but football needs the money, doesn't it? I mean, certainly grassroots football does in places like Africa and in Latin America and a lot of those places. There are a lot of supporters for Mr. Infantino. We've heard from them this week saying, you know, he's great. He's expanded the World Cup. He's been good for us. And here he is coming up with a plan to actually spread more money to the outlying regions.