Fifa accused of using ‘blackmail’ to force support for Infantino’s re-election bid

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein (left), the president of the Jordan Football Association, says players have not been paid for their appearance at last year’s Arab Cup. Photograph: Mike Nelson/EPA

The Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, has accused Gianni Infantino’s administration of “blackmail”, claiming that Fifa threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president’s bid for re-election.

In a major intervention Prince Ali, who ran for the Fifa presidency against Infantino in 2016 and finished third, listed a number of problems dogging the global governing body and said Jordan’s players have not yet been paid for appearing in the Arab Cup last year. Prince Ali is head of the West Asian Football Federation, which includes influential states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that have thus far backed Infantino to stay on.