European soccer leaders meet aiming to shape strategy for ousting Infantino as FIFA president

BERLIN (AP) — European soccer leaders were gathering Wednesday with time pressing to find a candidate and shape their strategy for trying to oust Gianni Infantino as president of FIFA.

UEFA has called its 55 member federations to a previously scheduled summit Thursday in Berlin that arrives in the midst of European efforts to get a new leader for soccer’s world body.

Infantino’s divisive World Cup private investment plan — that failed within days of being revealed in July — pushed UEFA to act on long-standing mistrust of its former employee’s increasingly executive presidency at FIFA.

UEFA's longer term plans include preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for possible financial mismanagement in the World Cup sell-off deal, and has asked courts in the United States to authorize discovery of evidence.

“Somewhere along the way things went too far with FIFA, and we’re looking to put things back where they belong,” UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said last month.

Europe’s 55 count for more than a quarter of FIFA’s 211 member federations who can vote in the election on March 18 in Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press research suggests Infantino already has about 90 votes pledged — albeit before any potential opponent is known.

Still, UEFA is not a united bloc. Infantino has support promised from Azerbaijan, the home country of a close aide, and Latvia. On Wednesday he met with soccer and government officials in the Czech capital Prague.

First, UEFA and its allies worldwide need to agree on at least one candidate to challenge Infantino by a Nov. 18 deadline to enter the race.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin was joined in August by his fellow FIFA vice presidents from Asia and North America in denouncing Infantino for deception and breach of trust over the World Cup sell-off plan.

Still, neither Ceferin or his counterparts at the AFC and CONCACAF, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Victor Montagliani of Canada, currently look set to be on the FIFA ballot.

Ceferin has long dismissed any talk of himself running to lead FIFA, though he said last month at UEFA meetings in Greece there were “many, many” potential candidates.

Montagliani is expected to focus on his own reelection at CONCACAF in February.

Sheikh Salman has been Infantino’s FIFA election opponent before. He had been favorite in a five-man campaign that Infantino eventually won in February 2016.

Speculation has often pointed to Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaïfi, a close ally of Ceferin. The Qatari member of UEFA’s executive committee ruled himself out last week at a meeting of the influential European Football Clubs group he leads.

Infantino is just part of UEFA's focus in Berlin for the biennial business meeting of top executives from its member federations, that can debate policy, strategy and international soccer competitions.

This time, ideas about the kind of reformed and more transparent FIFA that European soccer wants to see — and an election candidate to commit to — should be aired.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here