The president of a FIFA confederation has asked the president of FIFA not to come to a children's football tournament, because his presence would turn the coverage into a story about FIFA.
Victor Montagliani, the CONCACAF president and a vice-president of the FIFA Council, wrote to Gianni Infantino on Friday about the Caribbean Football Union's under-14 series, being played this weekend in the Dominican Republic. Al Jazeera has seen the letter.
What the letter says
"As you may be aware, your proposed attendance has garnered significant media attention," Montagliani wrote. "The media will focus on this situation, which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition."
He closed with a direct request: "I respectfully ask you in the name of football to reconsider your attendance as it will unfortunately undermine the technical nature of this important youth development activity."
The phrasing is careful. Montagliani does not accuse Infantino of anything. His stated objection is about attention, not conduct: that a fourteen-year-olds' tournament would become a backdrop for a story about the governance of world football. That is a narrow argument, and it is also an unusual one to have to put in writing to your own organization's president.
The crisis behind it
The dispute Montagliani refers to concerns what Al Jazeera describes as Infantino's aborted proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup. The report does not set out the proposal's terms.
Three confederations opposed it: UEFA, which governs European football, the Asian Football Confederation, and CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean. The proposal has been dropped.
The consequences for Infantino personally have not been dropped with it. He is seeking a fourth term as FIFA president, running to 2031, and several national associations and senior officials have withdrawn their support.
That context explains why an invitation to a youth tournament became contentious. A confederation that has just defeated its president on a major commercial question is not eager to be photographed hosting him, and a president facing a re-election fight has obvious reasons to be seen at member events.
What happened next
The article does not say whether Infantino ultimately attended. It does report warm public welcomes from Dominican officials.
Kelvin Cruz, the country's minister of sports and recreation, said: "We deeply appreciate your visit to the Dominican Republic, without doubt that your presence in our country puts us on the international football radar and opens us great prospects for growth and development of Dominican football." Jose Deschamps, the president of the Dominican Football Federation, Benny Metz, the national commissioner of football, and Garibaldy Bautista Lorenzo, the president of the Olympic committee, are also named among those greeting him.
Those statements are their own answer to Montagliani. The host federation plainly wanted the visit, whatever the confederation above it preferred, which is a reminder that FIFA politics runs through 200-odd national associations that each have their own reasons.
Al Jazeera says it contacted FIFA for comment and reports no response. We have not been able to verify this account against a second publication.
