Embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been accused of a potential abuse of power and conflict of interest after the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) filed formal complaints to two FIFA committees.
They revolve around three matters: Infantino’s aborted plan to open up the World Cup to private investors, the lifting of the suspension of US star Folarin Balogun at the 2026 World Cup following an intervention by Donald Trump, and FIFA’s awarding of a so-called Peace Prize to the US president.
The first filing made on Tuesday “asks the Ethics Committee to examine the conduct of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and any other individuals identified through the investigation for potential breaches of FIFA’s Code of Ethics.“
The second filing is aimed at FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) and “asks whether FIFA’s governance, financial oversight, internal controls and decision-making processes (have) worked as intended”.
Lise Klaveness, the NFF’s straight-talking president and longtime critic of Infantino, told The Times newspaper that Trump was the common thread in all three issues.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s brother Josh’s venture capital firm was to be the chief investor in the ill-fated FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan.
Infantino’s plan, launched just after this year’s hugely successful World Cup co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States in July would have allowed private investors to acquire stakes in a company created under the FFE initiative.
The backlash that followed led to Infantino making a humiliating climbdown within days.
“FIFA Forward Enterprise is a governance issue but it’s connected to the two other cases because (of) conflict of interest and abuse of position, potentially,” Klaveness told The Times.
“There is a line between all these three cases and it’s the same political regime.”
