FIFA secretary general Grafstrom breaks ranks over abandoned stake-sale plan

FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom — a close ally of president Gianni Infantino since 2016 — told staff the scrapped plan to sell private stakes in FIFA competitions was "a sad and reproachable series of events" and "thankfully concluded with the project permanently abandoned," per BBC Sport. It is the first internal leadership criticism of the proposal, which sought up to $4.2 billion from a $20 billion commercial subsidiary.