Mexico, Argentina back Infantino as Fifa row rages on

The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has broken ranks with its own regional confederation by backing Fifa president Gianni Infantino, after CONCACAF called for a "comprehensive reckoning" with his presidency.

Mexico were among the co-hosts of the recently concluded World Cup.

"The FMF will neither recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework, and it joins the call made … by president Infantino to collectively continue developing football for the benefit of the 211 member associations," the federation said in a statement.

"The FMF supports president Infantino's leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening," it added.

On Thursday, the Confederation of African Football unanimously backed Infantino's leadership. European governing body Uefa, however, said it remained committed to boycotting the World Cup and other Fifa competitions, while Asia's confederation said it "stood in solidarity" with Uefa and CONCACAF, which runs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

South America's CONMEBOL issued a statement rejecting any attempt to oust Infantino that did not involve a vote of all 211 members. Its earlier statement had voiced concern over "repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue", stressing the importance of the transparency reforms Fifa introduced more than a decade ago.

Argentina, the 2022 world champions, also weighed in. In a letter to Infantino, the AFA expressed support for Fifa's work over the last 10 years, saying it had "centred on the development of soccer worldwide and institutional strength based on a clear, stable, and transparent governance model". The AFA acknowledged the proposal had generated far more uncertainties than certainties and that errors had been made, but said the way forward was to keep working under Fifa's leadership ahead of next year's Congress.

Following a meeting in Rabat this week, Fifa said it had apologised to members for mistakes around the proposal to sell a slice of the World Cup's commercial future, and pledged to review the processes behind it.

The Croatian Football Federation withdrew support for Infantino, following England and Albania. Players' union FIFPRO called the proposal not just a governance failure but a "profound abuse of presidential power".

Fifa has said all actions taken over the commercial rights proposal complied with its regulations, stressing the mistakes related to process and communication rather than breaches of governance rules. The fallout has clouded Infantino's bid for a fourth term at the Fifa Congress in Morocco in March, though no clear rival candidate has emerged.