Gianni Infantino will hold a crisis meeting with top FIFA officials in Morocco on Wednesday as he looks to shore up his position in the wake of the collapse of his gambit to sell off commercial rights to the World Cup.

The FIFA president has been the subject of a torrent of criticism, and no small amount of personal abuse, since he floated the idea of the new commercial rights body to FIFA’s 211 member associations last week.

The proposed sale of 20% of the body to private investment to raise $4.2 billion, and the involvement of a company with family links to President Donald Trump, were just the most egregious flaws in the plan for its many critics.

His backdown last Friday has done little to assuage those critics, most notably the European confederation UEFA, who accused him of selling the soul of the game and have said they no longer have confidence in his leadership.

That has cast a shadow over Infantino’s reelection for a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March, which looked a foregone conclusion two months ago.

A handful of European federations have withdrawn their backing for the Swiss-Italian but perhaps more damaging is the messaging coming from some of Infantino’s colleagues at FIFA.

FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom sent an internal memo to staff lamenting the “sad and reproachable series of events” that led to the project being “permanently abandoned”, two sources told Reuters.

“Individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go. The institution, its mission and its responsibility towards world football continue …” the Swede added in the letter, which made no mention of Infantino by name.

His words echoed those of FIFA Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour, who said last week that staff had been “deceived” over the plan which he described as “the project of one person.”

Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest at the plan last week and former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger distanced himself from it on Tuesday.

Wenger, the chief of Global Football Development at FIFA, said he was not involved in the drafting of the proposal and maintained the decision to withdraw it was “absolutely necessary”.

Survive seven months until the election

Infantino has spent the last week in Morocco, which will co-host the next World Cup in 2030 and whose football association have already announced their continued support for him.

The first order of Wednesday’s meeting at FIFA’s Africa office in Sale, which sits across the Bou Regreg river from the Moroccan capital Rabat, is likely to focus on ensuring that Infantino at least survives the seven months until the election.

An Extraordinary Congress could be called if 43 or more FIFA member associations make a formal written request for one.

According to a report in the Times of London on Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are determined to force Infantino out of office by paralyzing FIFA and even starting up their own competitions if he refuses to go.

CONCACAF, the AFC and FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. UEFA said it had no comment.

CONCACAF, which runs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, and the AFC have backed UEFA’s position, even if not every national association will follow their confederation’s lead.

Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have declared their loyalty to Infantino in the face of the AFC’s stance.

Infantino has always enjoyed a lot of support away from the traditional heartlands of the game, where impoverished football associations rely on FIFA’s largesse to operate.

It was at those associations that his proposal was pitched, with promises of a dividend of $20 million to $40 million at the start of next year for each national body which backed the plan.

African administrators back Infantino

Leading African football administrators have sent messages of support as Infantino looks to the continent’s 54 members for backing. The African confederation (CAF) has yet to take a stance.

The executive committee of the smallest and least wealthy confederation, Oceania, will meet next Wednesday to discuss their approach.

“I think it’s going to be really interesting for the international football community over the next few weeks,” New Zealand Football boss Andrew Pragnell told Reuters on Tuesday.

“It’s really important for a country like New Zealand to make a lot of contact with its confederation. It helps when you act in unison with your confederation.”

Under FIFA rules, the vote of San Marino, whose men’s team are ranked 211th and last in the world rankings, counts as much as that of World Cup winners Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Spain.

FIFA cancels plan to sell World Cup stakes to private equity investors

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One clear advantage for Infantino as he looks to extend his presidency until 2031 is that no clear candidate to stand against him in March’s election has yet emerged.

Jordan FA President Prince Ali bin Hussein has twice stood for the post, losing to Sepp Blatter in 2015 and finishing third behind Infantino and AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa the following year.

Prince Ali made his position on the current crisis clear on Tuesday when he accused FIFA of “blackmail,” saying that it had offered to help solve problems in exchange for endorsing Infantino.

“We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now,” Prince Ali wrote on social media.

Reuters has contacted FIFA for comment on the allegations.

Attorneys for the former Olympic canoeist the Trump administration had charged in a felony Reflecting Pool case are seeking to permanently bar any effort to resurface what they called a “politically motivated prosecution” of their client.

The case against David “Davey” Hearn was “motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support,” his attorneys said in a filing Tuesday, adding that the Justice Department “has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts.”

The “sprint to charge” Hearn, they wrote, “mirrored the expedited timeline to complete the Pool renovations” that led to the damage in the first place.

Jeanine Pirro faces uncertain future after Reflecting Pool case

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Hearn had been on a bike ride in June and stopped by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he was arrested after he allegedly touched material that the Trump administration had recently installed on the pool bottom. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters last month that her office could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn had caused at least $1,000 in damage to the Reflecting Pool, and her office convinced grand jurors to indict Hearn on a felony charge.

But on Friday, Pirro’s team moved to dismiss the case against Hearn, admitting that internal Interior Department documents demonstrated that there had been extensive damage that was the result of a rushed and “botched” installation process. Pirro’s team also moved to dismiss misdemeanor cases brought against three others in connection with incidents at the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump wasn’t pleased. He told reporters on Monday that Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” and claimed that she’s been facing a hostile judge, even though no judge had taken any substantive action in the case. Hours later, Pirro visited the White House, bringing with her an evidence box.

A key witness who testified before the grand jury hadn’t initially been able to show that Hearn caused at least $1,000 in damage. But the witness was later recalled and then claimed that the additional damage that Pirro’s office ascribed to Hearn would cost more than $1,000 to fix, which would have supported a felony charge.

Pirro’s office moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning they could theoretically bring the case again. Hearn’s team wanted the case dismissed with prejudice, which would mean Pirro’s team would be banned from bringing a case against Hearn in connection with the incident.

“By moving to dismiss, the U.S. Attorney’s Office did the right thing,” said attorney Steve Levin, one of the lawyers representing Hearn. “But as our response makes clear, it did so the wrong way.”

Hearn’s filing revealed that a National Park Service engineer even told federal investigators that “he had personally cut loose liner or coating with a knife” to prevent the peeling from worsening.

“The government’s own engineer determined that it was better to cut off the peeling sections than to let them flap around,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote.

In its filing, Hearn’s team said the “exceptional facts and circumstances” warranted a dismissal with prejudice.

“Defying both decency and common sense, the government proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge,” they wrote.

Hearn’s team also said Pirro “held an unprofessional and unethical press conference in which she wholly disregarded DC Bar and DOJ ethics rules by discussing the purported evidence, bolstering the credibility of potential witnesses, and wrongly opining” on Hearn’s guilt.

The case is still active in D.C. Superior Court, and a judge has not ruled on whether to permanently bar Pirro’s office from bringing a new case against Hearn. A hearing that had been set for Thursday has been cancelled.