Gianni Infantino remains as Fifa president after executive meeting

Gianni Infantino will remain as Fifa president after he received the backing of senior executives in a meeting in Morocco on Wednesday.

Infantino summoned members of the management board to Fifa’s Africa office in Rabat following mounting criticism of his aborted attempt to sell off commercial and event operations to private investors.

European football’s governing body Uefa said at the weekend that it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”.

Much criticism has come from within Fifa, including secretary general Mattias Grofstrom, who was at Wednesday’s meeting. In an internal memo sent to Fifa staff on Tuesday, he wrote that the situation is “a sad and reproachable series of events”.

However, in a statement following the meeting, Grofstrom and the managament board “reaffirmed their full support” for Infantino as president.

More to follow.