German Football Federation hits out at 'irresponsible' Infantino

The German Football Federation (DFB) has joined the attacks on FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his now abandoned World Cup investor plans while the Danish and Dutch FAs said bluntly they had lost faith in him.

“The events surrounding this project initiated by Gianni Infantino must now be thoroughly investigated. The FIFA president acted in a unilateral, opaque and ultimately irresponsible way in terms of football,” DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said.

“We must now work together with UEFA and other confederations to ensure that a fundamentally different culture takes hold at FIFA. A culture in which decisions are once again primarily discussed and made by the members within the governing bodies.”

FIFA had announced on Tuesday that it wanted to sell minority stakes in a planned company overseeing its commercial rights and tournament operations to private investors. Members who endorsed this by September 19 would receive a $20 million bonus.

UEFA said it would boycott FIFA events if the project became reality and the FIFA scheme was also rejected by Asia's AFC and the CONCACAF confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean.

That meant that FIFA and Infantino would have no majority from the 211 members and Infantino said early Saturday that the plan was scrapped.

Neuendorf stopped short of saying the DFB had lost confidence in FIFA and Infantino like UEFA did earlier Saturday, but the UEFA stance was supported by Denmark's DBU and the KNVB in the Netherlands.

DBU chief Jesper Møller said he fully agreed with UEFA that confidence in Infantino had been lost and “that is why I cannot support him either.”

Withdrawing the proposal was “the only right decision – and it was to be expected. International football was at a crossroads where some of the values that form the heart and soul of the game were under pressure,” Møller said.

The KNVB said: “With the withdrawal of the proposal, the matter is not settled for the KNVB. The way in which this process has unfolded has led to a fundamental breach of trust in the leadership style of FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"The KNVB no longer has any confidence in his leadership. This situation calls for a serious discussion about the future of governance and leadership within FIFA.”