Fifa President Gianni Infantino Asked to Skip Youth Tournament Amid Governance Crisis

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been asked to stay away from a youth football tournament in the Dominican Republic this weekend by Concacaf president Victor Montagliani. In a letter seen by the BBC, Montagliani referred to the "governance crisis surrounding Fifa", before asking Infantino to reconsider attending the CFU Under-14 Series event. The Canadian, who is also a Fifa vice-president, added his presence would "unfortunately undermine the technical nature" of the competition. Infantino was invited as a guest of the Dominican Republic, although the invitation is believed to have been issued prior to his controversial Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, which has left his position under threat. "The media will focus on this situation, which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition," wrote Montagliani. "As such, I respectfully ask you in the name of football to reconsider your attendance as it will unfortunately undermine the technical nature of this important youth development activity." Infantino was well received on his arrival to the Caribbean country, while a number of Concacaf nations have backed him to continue for a fourth term as Fifa president. The 56-year-old was pictured meeting officials, external on a video posted by the Caribbean Football Union on social media on Friday. "We deeply appreciate your visit to the Dominican Republic, without doubt that your presence in our country puts us on the international football radar and opens us great prospects for growth and development of Dominican football," said Dominican Republic's minister of sports and recreation Kelvin Cruz in a statement. The tournament is one of a number of development projects funded by world football's governing body through their Fifa Forward programme. Infantino has faced heavy criticism over his attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors through his now-scrapped FFE proposal. A number of football associations have withdrawn their support for the Swiss-Italian administrator, who was accused of breaking trust "through deception" in an open letter issued by Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation. Fifa's decision to dismiss senior executive Kevin Lamour following his criticism of Infantino has also been criticised. However, Infantino retains the support of South American governing body Conmebol and Caf, the African governing body.