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Jordan Football Association president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein has accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of “blackmail” after his failed attempt to sell stakes in the World Cup.

Infantino was compelled to drop the proposal — specifically, the plan to sell stakes in the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments to private investors — following a public backlash last week.

European football’s governing body UEFA had even confirmed a boycott of the World Cup and other FIFA competitions, stating that its member nations would not participate if Infantino’s proposal was approved. The Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf, which represents 41 nations across North and Central America and the Caribbean, supported UEFA’s position.

Now, a few days later, and with the Football Association set to withdraw its backing for Infantino’s re-election next year, Prince Ali — who was defeated by Infantino in the 2016 presidential election — has accused the FIFA chief of creating a situation that “amounts to blackmail”.

“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values,” he posted. “We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”

FIFA is aware of Prince Ali’s remarks and has so far declined to comment.

Setting out the range of problems FIFA has faced in recent months, Prince Ali said: “There is no shortage of issues regarding FIFA. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time.

“We are a small country with a minimal budget for our FA and had to deal with enormous hurdles. First, getting our fans into the USA: not all were granted visas, even though they had tickets — which we also know were sold at exorbitant prices. Secondly, we are being taxed by the US government through FIFA for our participation. Money that should go to players and staff.

“This was not the case for those who played and set up camp in Canada and Mexico. But we happened to be in the USA, so now we face these huge costs in taxes for having participated.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is under pressure after his failed idea to sell off part of the World Cup.

Prince Ali lost to Infantino in the 2016 FIFA presidential election.

“Thirdly, we have been waiting for reward money for our players since December for the Arab Cup in Qatar, which is a FIFA event. The money our team should receive for having reached the final has not been delivered yet, while at the same time FIFA boasts about how many billions they have in reserve.”

Prince Ali added that neither he nor the Jordan Football Association supports Infantino for re-election next year.

“It is clear the problem really is with leadership,” he said. “For months, FIFA has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters — until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out.

“We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values. We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that.”

Despite calls for Infantino to step down, the FIFA president has not spoken since the withdrawal of his proposals last Saturday.