By Paul Nicholson
January 22 – Cracks are beginning to appear over UEFA’s supposedly unified stance behind Gianni Infantino’s bid to become FIFA president as a result of his €500,000 campaign fund – understood to be hard cash budgeted for his political push that doesn’t include other costs for campaign services provided by UEFA.
UEFA confirmed to Insideworldfootball that they had agreed what they described as a “relevant budget” to fund their general secretary’s presidential campaign at an executive committee meeting in October of last year. The money allocated was not disclosed at a press conference following that meeting, nor was it openly disclosed to UEFA’s members.
A good chunk of those funds went to fund a private jet from Kigali in Rwanda to Antigua in the Caribbean last weekend, a cost estimated at more than €100,000.
With Michel Platini still fighting his eight-year Fifa ban, many of UEFA’s federations have expressed discomfort over what they describe as a lack of leadership within the confederation and are believed to have made their voices heard at meetings at the organisation’s Nyon headquarters. Whether UEFA’s executive committee listens remains to be seen.
Earlier this week Luxembourg FA boss Paul Philipp said: “UEFA was working fine but now everything is falling apart. It is urgent that the executive committee restores some order. At present, there are meetings all over the place. We even hold talks on flights.”
One flight on which they seem unlikely to have held talks was the private jet Infantino is understood to have taken from Africa to the Caribbean.
The situation has now reached a level where Infantino cannot count on the support of all his European members, despite UEFA today publicly putting on a united front. It seems likely, given the level of federation questioning, that demands will be made for a financial audit of how his campaign funds are spent.
Infantino wrote on his website. “The funding is there essentially to cover the cost of my travels around the world and to provide some logistical support, given that I’m trying to meet as many national associations as possible in order to discuss issues of concern to them regarding the future of world football.”
This week Germany and Switzerland declared support for Infantino in his presidential campaign but there were rumblings of discontent emerging from the influential Scandinavian federations. Of the so-called senior nations, England is also undecided who it will support and is by no means a shoe-in for Infantino.
Rules around how far a presidential candidate can be supported by his confederation and what that support can be spent on appear to be fairly flexible.
In a 2014 interview on FIFA.com, Domenico Scala, head of FIFA’s electoral committee, said: “While candidates who hold positions within association football are permitted to remain in office during their election campaign, there are indeed certain aspects to be considered. All candidates are bound by the FIFA Code of Ethics and may be subject to investigations in cases of irregularities. Candidates must avoid conflicts of interest, in particular in the context of campaign funding. Furthermore, campaign activities by candidates holding official positions must not be mixed with activities carried out under the current office of the candidates concerned.”
In reality this now appears to be a very loose guideline and the ethics body have made it clear to Insideworldfootball that how the election funds are spent is the candidate’s responsibility – implying that pretty much anything goes. It is unclear what they term as a conflict of interest as regards funding.
Candidates are required to disclose all their funding sources and from Infantino’s statement the impression is that he is only being funded by UEFA.
While UEFA’s executive committee was holding meetings this week, so too were its national federations in a hastily arranged get-together of their own, the main subject of which was believed to be the leadership crisis.
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