The apology letter FIFA sent to all 211 of its member associations landed while its leadership was in the same Moroccan city where Gianni Infantino will stand for a fourth term in seven months’ time. That is not a coincidence anyone in FIFA politics is treating as one.

Around a table in Rabat on Wednesday, the FIFA president, secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and FIFA Council members regrouped after the retreat from the plan to sell roughly 20% of a new FIFA commercial subsidiary to private investors, in a deal that would have raised about $4.2bn.

The joint letter from Infantino and Grafstrom that went out to the 211 associations told them, according to a Sportingpedia summary of the document: “We sincerely apologise for these errors and commit to them not happening again.”

The FIFA leadership at the same time put out a firmer statement saying the organisation would “no longer tolerate attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process” and would take “all necessary measures to protect its reputation”.

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The proposal had been abandoned on 1 August after UEFA voted unanimously to reject it, with CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation following. All three have said they have lost confidence in Infantino.

CAF silent while its heavyweights speak up

CAF, whose president Patrice Motsepe is also a FIFA vice-president, has issued nothing in reply to the apology and said little during the crisis itself.

When the stake-sale plan was still under discussion, the confederation limited itself to one line, saying it would “examine, assess and study the proposal before giving their opinion on it”. That opinion has not followed.

Individual African administrators have been much louder. Five names in particular came out for the FIFA president in the days after the plan was pulled, as reported by Al Jazeera: Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa, who is also a CAF vice-president; Egypt’s Hany Abo Rida; Niger’s Hamidou Djibrilla; Mauritania’s Ahmed Yhaya; and DR Congo’s Veron Mosengo-Omba.

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Lekjaa framed the argument bluntly.

“The progress achieved in recent years through FIFA’s development programs, particularly in Africa, represents a valuable achievement that must be preserved,” he said.

Motsepe himself had already thrown his personal weight behind the Swiss administrator before the stake-sale controversy erupted. Speaking in Johannesburg in July, the CAF president told reporters:

“I personally support Gianni Infantino. He’s not just a good friend. He’s a loyal friend. He’s loyal to Africa.”

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Why FIFA Forward makes the numbers work

The money explains why the European revolt has not spread south.

FIFA Forward, the development programme Infantino has expanded through his tenure, currently provides a baseline of about $8m per member association over each four-year cycle, and Motsepe has flagged that African federations expect that figure to rise sharply for the 2027 to 2030 cycle.

For smaller federations, that grant is not a top-up. Said Ali Athouman, president of the Comoros Football Federation, put it plainly: “Our problem is how to obtain money. Right now, we have no sponsors.”

Confederations do not deliver ballots

The number Africa is remembered for in FIFA politics is 54, the size of CAF’s membership.

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It is worth stating clearly that the FIFA Congress does not operate as a bloc vote: each of the 211 member associations casts its own ballot, and no confederation, in Africa or in Europe, can bind its members.

UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC have all pulled away from Infantino, but their public positions are statements of leadership opinion, not tallies of votes already lost.

That is why the mood inside African federations, rather than any CAF communique, is what Infantino is protecting between now and March. The apology to the 211 was addressed to associations, one by one, for a reason.

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