A close ally of Fifa president Gianni Infantino has insisted the football governing body's congress remains firmly behind him, despite growing pressure from Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation to remove him. Véron Mosengo-Omba, president of the Congolese Football Federation and a university friend of Infantino's, said he would "take a bullet" for the Fifa chief, even as several confederations push for an emergency congress to trigger a vote of no confidence.

Mosengo-Omba, a former Fifa chief member associations officer, admitted he opposed Infantino's now-withdrawn Fifa Forward Enterprise plan, which sought to sell over 20% of the World Cup's commercial rights to private investors via JP Morgan, promising more than $10bn (£7.5bn) in returns to member associations. He criticised how the scheme was handled rather than the concept itself, and is now considering an alternative under which confederations could each buy a stake of up to 20%. The row follows the sacking of Fifa's chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, and comes amid doubts over whether Infantino's opponents can reach the 106-vote threshold needed to unseat him.