RABAT, Aug. 5 -- The accusation that arrived Monday from Amman was the bluntest statement anyone inside the game had made out loud. Prince Ali bin Hussein, Jordan's football association president and former FIFA vice president, announced publicly that FIFA had offered to resolve his federation's outstanding grievances in exchange for endorsing Gianni Infantino's re-election campaign. The offer, Prince Ali said, concerned unpaid prize money from the 2025 Arab Cup, visa difficulties for Jordanian supporters, and inequitable cost burdens that smaller nations had been absorbing for months. "The whole situation amounts to blackmail," Prince Ali said, "and we refuse to give in to that."

Infantino was in Morocco when the statement landed. He ha...