Gianni Infantino spent Saturday at a Caribbean Football Union Under-14 tournament in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, the day after his own vice-president had written asking him not to come.

The letter came from Victor Montagliani, the Canadian who runs CONCACAF and sits alongside Infantino on the FIFA Council. He warned that Infantino’s presence would pull the cameras away from the football.

“I believe that considering the governance crisis surrounding FIFA as a result of your controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, the media will focus on this situation,” Montagliani wrote in a letter sent on Friday.

Montagliani asked him “in the name of football to reconsider your attendance as it will unfortunately undermine the technical nature of this important youth development activity.” Infantino went anyway, and posted photos from the tournament on Instagram.

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When Sky News reporter James Matthews put it to him at the resort that he had betrayed the sport, Infantino replied only “Thank you so much,” and joked that he and the reporter were both bald.

The plan Infantino was forced to drop

The row is the aftermath of the FIFA Forward Enterprise, a plan to raise up to $4.2bn from outside investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in a new commercial subsidiary valued at around $20bn.

Infantino withdrew the plan on 1 August, saying it had “created divisions of a nature” that were no longer in the interest of the original objective. UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation had opposed it, and critics questioned FIFA’s transparency in developing it in the first place.

Montagliani, 60, chaired an urgent meeting of the presidents of the 41 CONCACAF federations that produced the sharpest official rebuke Infantino has faced. The confederation called the plan an “egregious act of poor governance and leadership” that “follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour,” concluding that “a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative.”

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Vancouver, April: The platform

Montagliani’s pitch predates the crisis. At the 76th FIFA Congress in his home city of Vancouver on 30 April, he told the room: “Leadership is not about power. Leadership is about service.”

He has led CONCACAF since 2016 and was re-elected unanimously in 2023. Asked by the Globe and Mail in June whether he might one day succeed Infantino, he said only that he was “honoured by the idea” and that “I’ll let the future take care of itself.”

The road to Rabat

The FIFA presidential election is scheduled for March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco, with the nominations deadline set for 18 November. Infantino is seeking re-election.

Whether Montagliani formally enters is still unclear. He has not publicly committed to running, though Reuters has reported he is weighing a bid and ESPN has cast him as the front-runner if Infantino steps aside.

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UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin is prepared to spearhead a no-confidence vote if Infantino refuses to withdraw, and CAF president Patrice Motsepe and European Club Association chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi have been drawn into the discussions.

That opposition is not a bloc of votes. FIFA’s 211 member associations each cast their own ballot at the presidential congress, and confederation leaders can lobby but cannot bind them. Infantino’s fate will hang on how the associations vote when they are handed the ballot in Rabat, not on how many confederation presidents are against him.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, asked earlier in August about his compatriot’s possible bid, called Montagliani “an exceptional individual; he’s a credit to Canada, credit to football.”

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