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The Football Association remains firm in its view that Gianni Infantino is no longer the right person to lead FIFA, even after world football’s governing body said on Wednesday night that its president had its “full support”.

Sources within the FA had earlier indicated that it planned to send a letter to FIFA confirming that it was withdrawing support for Infantino’s bid for re-election at next year’s Congress.

That stance is understood to have remained unchanged, despite FIFA and Infantino apologising to national associations over the way a proposal involving private investors in a company supervising the World Cup and other competitions was handled.

The Football Association of Wales has already publicly withdrawn its support, along with the football associations of Serbia, Sweden and Finland. Sources close to the situation said FIFA’s latest statement has only deepened the anger among those opposed to Infantino, with one prediction of “open warfare” at the top level of world football politics.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham was pictured alongside Infantino.

Even before Wednesday’s statement, members of the FIFA Council were understood to be trying to secure the majority of 19 required to force a meeting with Infantino.

The purpose of such a meeting would be to make him answer for the private investor proposal and the Folarin Balogun case. It is understood that members are ready to begin a “governance boycott” of Council meetings — a step that would in effect bring FIFA to a standstill — if they do not get the required majority, or if Infantino rejects a properly backed request for a meeting.

FIFA’s statement said Infantino had the “full support” of the management board members who were present at Wednesday’s meeting in Rabat, Morocco, highlighting his clear determination to stay in office despite growing opposition.

The statement said that “mistakes were acknowledged” in the handling of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, adding that it was “not the intention” that the FIFA Council or member associations should “feel excluded” from the process.

Although FIFA promised a review into how the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal was handled, it also maintained that “everything that was done was done in full compliance with the FIFA regulatory framework.”

It further warned that FIFA “will 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.”

Meanwhile, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, president of the Jordan Football Association, accused FIFA of “blackmail” in a post on X on Tuesday. He alleged that FIFA had offered help with financial recovery during the World Cup if the JFA backed Infantino.

Earlier this week, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein accused FIFA of blackmail.

FIFA is aware of the allegation but has not yet commented on it, and it has also not responded to The Guardian’s report on Wednesday claiming that FIFA played a central role in talks in 2020 to develop the European Super League, which at one stage was reportedly due to be called the ‘FIFA Super League’.

FIFA did, however, reject a report in The Times on Wednesday that Infantino had promised Morocco the right to host the 2030 World Cup final. The governing body said a decision would be taken “in due course”, while noting that Morocco is one of the tournament’s three principal co-hosts, together with Spain and Portugal.

UEFA was one of three continental confederations that publicly opposed Infantino’s private investor proposal last week, and even threatened to boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, unless the plan was dropped.

Although Infantino confirmed last Saturday that the plan would not go ahead, UEFA released another statement saying it had “lost confidence” in the Swiss official. UEFA has not yet commented on FIFA’s statement issued on Wednesday.