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FIFA President Gianni Infantino is leaning on Africa’s 54-member voting bloc to survive the fallout from his failed $20 billion World Cup commercial rights plan, with staunch ally Morocco leading the charge.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF), led by South African billionaire Patrick Motsepe, said on Thursday its executive committee “unanimously reconfirmed its support” for Infantino, thanking him “for his support for African Football.”
Four African members of the FIFA Council had previously issued statements backing Infantino after he abandoned the sale proposal last week.
Once reports of the proposal to sell off stakes in the World Cup broke last month, three confederations — Asia, Europe, and North America — along with anger from world leaders and dissenting FIFA staff pushed Infantino to back down. Now, a pressure campaign challenging Infantino’s leadership is gathering steam, with the continued threat of a European boycott looming.
The statement cements Africa’s status as Infantino’s most reliable large bloc — and narrows the odds his opponents can assemble a majority against him.
“I’m not surprised that they came out in support of Infantino,” Algiers-based football journalist Maher Mezahi told Semafor. He said high ranking CAF figures owe their positions to Infantino.
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Morocco’s backing reflects a decade-long strategy to use football as diplomatic leverage, Mezahi said, pointing to Rabat’s investment in stadiums, its hosting of CAF tournaments, and its status as host of the only FIFA office on the continent — which served as the site of Infantino’s Wednesday crisis meeting.
Morocco will co-host the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal, and reports suggest Infantino has offered Morocco the award of long-sought hosting rights for the tournament final over Spain in exchange for continued support ahead of March’s presidential vote.
CAF chief Motsepe has called Infantino “loyal to Africa,” with some officials citing FIFA funding — guaranteed at $8 million per association over four years — as central to their support.
However, Mezahi added that Africa’s usual voting unity has a potential fracture point: Algeria, wary of Infantino’s relationship with its rival Morocco, may break ranks in a shift that could pull Tunisia along with it. That regional rivalry, Mezahi said, could give Infantino’s opponents an opening to peel off a handful of African votes even as CAF presents a united front publicly.
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Morocco’s football chief, Fouzi Lekjaa, is hoping his sporting success will translate into political capital. The longtime civil servant — who also serves as budget minister — joined the junior coalition partner Authenticity and Modernity Party in July and is widely expected to enter parliament in September’s elections, putting him in a strong position to become the kingdom’s next prime minister.
The North Africa country’s next cabinet is already being dubbed the “World Cup government.” This is on the assumption that Lekjaa’s association with the Atlas Lions’ recent success — most notably their historic run to the 2022 World Cup semifinals and a quarterfinal this year — will outweigh public frustration over the billions spent on new stadiums.
That raises the stakes of Rabat’s FIFA lobbying. Morocco has every incentive to keep its close ally, Infantino, and by extension its relationship with FIFA, onside ahead of the 2030 World Cup as it heads into election season.
Notable
- Spain’s sports minister says her country ‘deserves’ to host the 2030 World Cup final, not Morocco.