Gianni Infantino has refused to quit as Fifa president despite issuing a grovelling apology for his doomed £15bn World Cup sell-off plan.
After crisis talks between Infantino and senior Fifa staff in Morocco on Wednesday, the governing body released a statement declaring that each had the full support of the other.
Infantino and Mattias Grafstrom, his secretary general, also wrote to Fifa’s 211 member associations and council members apologising for “errors” made before and after the emergence of the scheme that left the president fighting to cling on to power.
The pair put on a united front by appearing together during a Women’s Africa Cup of Nations match on Wednesday night.
Fifa additionally warned that it would “no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process and will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard its name and reputation”.
That was after Luis Figo accused Infantino of the “lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested behaviour” he had “ever witnessed” in the most scathing attack yet on the Fifa president.
The Football Association is among those to have withdrawn its support for Infantino during a Uefa-led campaign to topple him.
Fifa said: “Following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the Fifa secretary general and members of the Fifa management board in attendance reaffirmed their full support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 Fifa member associations. In turn, the Fifa president reiterated his full support for the Fifa secretary general and the Fifa administration for their necessary and outstanding work in the delivery of his vision.
