Topline
The president of the Jordanian Football Association, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, on Tuesday accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of blackmailing his organization in attempts to secure the Jordan team’s vote in the organization’s next leadership election.
Prince Ali bin al Hussein, left, and Gianni Infantino in 2016.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Infantino, who once had the backing of almost all of FIFA’s 211 member organizations, is facing a potential outster in March’s election after he angered a substantial number of national federations with a plan to sell a 20% stake in the World Cup to a group of private investors.
The plan was dropped late last week, but he’s now reportedly racing to drum up enough votes to secure his reelection to a fourth term as president as teams like England, Wales, Finland and Sweden retract their support.
In a social media post Tuesday, Ali said it was “verbally communicated” to him during the World Cup that issues faced by his team—including unpaid player reward money and problems with World Cup visas—could be solved if Jordan endorsed Infantino for a fourth term.
Ali said Jordan didn’t endorse Infantino before the alleged coercion and still doesn’t, and added “the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.