Infantino urged to include abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and Balogun affair in external Fifa review

Fifa council members are pressing president Gianni Infantino to ensure his proposed external review of Fifa’s governance includes the abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the Folarin Balogun affair, after Infantino said in a letter to all 211 member associations on Monday he would ask the council to commission such a review at its meeting in Zurich on 15 October. He faces an internal battle over the review’s terms of reference.

The Football Association’s chair, Debbie Hewitt, last week wrote to Infantino demanding the release of all documents relating to the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme that was abandoned last month and the background to Fifa’s decision to lift Balogun’s suspension during the World Cup; her request has the support of many council members. One council member told the Guardian that without a retrospective analysis of FFE and Balogun any governance review would lack credibility, and another suggested Infantino was seeking to avoid personal scrutiny by offering to look at Fifa’s governance structures moving forward rather than past controversies. The disagreement centres on whether the review’s remit should examine past decisions as well as future governance arrangements.

Fifa’s council is composed of 28 representatives of the six confederations, eight vice-presidents, president Gianni Infantino and Fifa’s secretary general, Mattias Grafström.

In the immediate aftermath of the Balogun affair, the US striker’s suspension from the World Cup last-32 tie against Belgium was lifted after a phone call to Infantino from Donald Trump, and a group of council members who tried to call an extraordinary general meeting were unable to secure the 19 votes required.

The European, Asian and North and Central American and Caribbean confederations campaigning against Infantino hold 21 of the 38 council seats between them, but that total includes delegates from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia who have issued public statements of support for the president.

Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German football federation, described Infantino’s offer of a governance review as cynical electioneering and said: "I regard Gianni Infantino’s letter as a transparent ploy to secure ⁠his re-election next year," "Fundamentally, Fifa now seems to have recognised that changes are essential. However, Gianni Infantino ⁠is definitely not the right person to lead a reform ⁠process."

Infantino said on Wednesday his letter had been well received while attending the opening night of the Arabian Gulf Cup in Jeddah, from where he will fly to New York for meetings at the United Nations general assembly. "I am looking forward to receiving feedback from everyone, following my letter," Infantino said. "I have received positive messages about it from different parts of the world, and it is important that we keep listening to each other, here in Saudi Arabia, in any one of Fifa’s 211 member associations. "We have a council meeting next month, so we will continue to have dialogue on these important matters. There must be a culture of dialogue, of listening to each other and respecting each other. "This is not about generating positive headlines, it is about doing what is right for the game. And I have never been more determined and committed in doing that. Fifa is always engaged. I am always engaged and want to hear how we can continue to grow football for the benefit of everybody, everywhere."

Infantino will ask the council to commission a review of "Fifa’s current governance framework for major strategic initiatives" at the Zurich meeting on 15 October, but council members are contesting the proposed terms of reference and want explicit retrospective scrutiny of the abandoned FFE scheme and the Balogun decision.