Jordan Federation Says FIFA and Gianni Infantino are Blackmailing

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein (right), President of the Jordanian Football Federation, accused Gianni Infantino and FIFA of extortion (Instagram/@jordan.fa).

JAKARTA - Former Vice President of FIFA, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, criticized the leadership of FIFA led by Gianni Infantino on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

The man who is now President of the Jordanian Football Federation described the prize money for the Jordan National Team (Timnas) as being held in a kind of extortion.

Prince Ali said the Jordanian Federation he leads has still not received the money it was supposed to receive for reaching the final of the Arab Cup, which was played in December 2025 in Qatar.

In a social media post, Prince Ali said that during the 2026 World Cup - which Jordan made its debut in June 2026 - he was told that if he supported Infantino, then FIFA would be very "helpful" to the Jordanian Federation, in this case the disbursement of the Arab Cup prize money.

Infantino "held hostage" the Jordan national team's prize money so that the Jordan Federation would support the bald man to continue leading FIFA until his term of office was over and support the next election.

"We are proud in Jordan for upholding ethical values. We did not support it before and of course we will not support it now."

"However, this whole situation is the same as extortion and we refuse to give in to it," Prince Ali - who finished third in the FIFA presidential contest which had five candidates when Infantino was first elected in February 2016 - said on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

As is known, the 2025 Arab Cup won by Morocco in the final was supposed to give a prize of 4.2 million US dollars to the losing finalist.

"The money that our team should have received for reaching the final has not been given, while at the same time FIFA brags about how many billions they have in reserves."

"Obviously the problem really lies with the leadership. For months, FIFA has refused to help us in this or any other matter," Prince Ali said, quoted by ESPN.

Prince Ali was the person chosen by the AFC to serve on the FIFA Executive Committee from 2011 to 2015.

At the time, he was up against FIFA President Sepp Blatter in the May 2015 election. The vote to re-elect Blatter was held amid the shadow of raids on Zurich hotels two days earlier to arrest FIFA officials as part of investigations by US and Swiss federal authorities.

Now, Prince Ali is faced again with a FIFA leadership that is no less corrupt.

Infantino is currently under pressure to save his 11-year term as FIFA president amid a backlash from global football leaders over his plans to sell World Cup profit-sharing in the future to investors led by Joshua Kushner.

The proposal, funded by Kushner's Thrive Eternal fund, would pay each of the other FIFA members 20 million US dollars if they accepted the plan by the deadline of September 19, 2026.

However, the pressure made Infantino's crazy plan eventually canceled. However, this did not stop the pressure on the FIFA President.

The impact of the private equity plan revealed a week ago has shaken football politics. Even so, however hard the pressure is flowing, Infantino seems to be re-elected without an opponent next year for his fourth and final term leading FIFA until 2031.

Seeing how strong the support is for Infantino, the FIFA member associations that are now against the Swiss man are starting to equalize votes and look for other candidates for the FIFA President election in 2027.

Infantino's former colleagues at UEFA are now looking for rival candidates. As is known, UEFA is the most aggressive confederation that threatens to boycott FIFA matches, events, and meetings.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Concacaf and AFC - whose members include Jordan - have also expressed opposition to Infantino.

FIFA has set a deadline of 18 November 2026 for FIFA presidential candidates to declare themselves in the election by the 211 member federations on 18 March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco.

Asia is seen as a key continent in a possible FIFA presidential contest, with Europe and countries from North America, Central America and the Caribbean expected to want Infantino ousted. While Africa, South America and Oceania are expected to support the Swiss.