Gianni Infantino accused of blackmail by Jordan FA chief

Jordanian Football Association president Prince Ali bin Hussein accused FIFA and Gianni Infantino of attempted “blackmail”, saying FIFA had withheld prize money owed for Jordan reaching last year's FIFA Arab Cup final.

Prince Ali, a former FIFA vice-president who twice ran unsuccessfully for the FIFA presidency, said Jordan was still waiting for reward money from the Arab Cup in Qatar. He said FIFA had refused for months to help with that and other matters before he was verbally told during the World Cup that endorsing Infantino's re-election bid “would go a long way” toward helping the Jordanian FA.

“We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now,” Prince Ali said in a social media statement. “The whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”

Prince Ali also said several Jordan fans who had tickets were not granted visas to enter the United States for the recent World Cup, and claimed Jordan's World Cup prize money was being taxed by the “US government through FIFA.”

Infantino has been under pressure over a failed plan to open the World Cup to private investment. Earlier Tuesday, Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global football development, and FIFA secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom criticised Infantino's handling of the scrapped investor plan. Wales, Finland, Sweden and Serbia have withdrawn letters of support for Infantino.