Fifa president Gianni Infantino is in the eye of a storm after his attempt to sell stakes in the World Cup. If he goes, who comes in?

It was doing so earlier this month as he was zig-zagging across the United States in a private jet to make him virtually omnipresent as the World Cup reached its crescendo. On 19 July he must have felt on top of the world as, together with US President Donald Trump, they handed the trophy over to Spain. Condemned by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, castigated by fans of the game he professes to want to protect. These can easily be deflected as hazards of the job. Less so the threatened boycott of Fifa competitions by European governing body Uefa - an attack reinforced by Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) and the AFC (Asia). All three organisations, in their own way, offered a withering assessment of how Fifa is being run under Infantino. "This issue extends far beyond a single proposal," said the AFC. "Rather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in Fifa's consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed." Sources say, in addition to rejecting Infantino's plan, the vast majority of the Concacaf members are either losing faith in the Fifa president's ability to govern the game, or have lost it altogether. On top of that, Carlos Cordeiro, special advisor to Infantino and appointed by Trump as senior advisor to the White House Task Force on the 2026 World Cup, has resigned.