DFB President Reinhard Grindel accuses FIFA Boss Gianni Infantino, a nontransparent approach. Also personally the two officials seem to be on the same wave length.
Grindel (l.) and Infantino (R) to the gallery at the Confed Cup in 2017
That does not sound like pretty much best friends. The President of the German football Association (DFB), Reinhard Grindel, has criticised the head of world football’s governing body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, for its planned billion-dollar deals to FIFA rights with clear words. “Due to the intransparent manner, how he deals with these topics, confirms many prejudices about FIFA,” said Grindel in an Interview with the Internet portal “sports buzzer”. “That’s why I got together with my UEFA colleagues in the FIFA Council to the fact that we get a task force in the all of the information to be disclosed, to be able to then come to a fair assessment of whether we need new competitions and, if so, how this might look like.”
Infantino wants to create two new tournament formats: a world League for national teams and 24 teams advanced club world Cup. In order to Finance the competitions, wants to sell the Swiss important marketing rights for 25 billion dollars to an international financial consortium. Grindel called for a broad debate about the project: “I would appreciate it if FIFA has to set up an open process of discussion and the stakeholders – the clubs, the leagues and the associations are much stronger in the discussions.”
No intensive exchange with Infantino
The relation to Infantino, the DFB-in-chief describes as a distant. “It is from different points of view on substantive issues marked,” said Grindel. Unlike with UEFA President Alexander Ceferin, with the he on the phone twice a week and he will meet also often, not with Infantino “intensive exchange”. On the question of Parallels between the time under the former FIFA boss Joseph Blatter and the current President of Infantino Grindel reacted cautiously. “I have witnessed the time of Sepp Blatter,” said the DFB President. “But I can say that the way we work in UEFA and to come to common results, but very different from the processes in the FIFA.”
sn/ck (dpa, sid, sports buzzer)