More than 200 FIFA member associations sent Gianni Infantino letters of personal endorsement before next year's presidential election, the Guardian reported, showing organized political support rather than an ethics finding, exoneration or written reasons for FIFA's handling of Folarin Balogun's suspension. [1]

The support leaves intact Saturday's account of a formal FairSquare complaint and an IOC oversight process without a reasoned jurisdiction decision, in which FairSquare alleged that Infantino, a member of the International Olympic Committee, breached political-neutrality rules after Donald Trump said he called him about Balogun's ban, while the complaint remains an allegation.

The pre-cutoff record contained no formal IOC investigation, published jurisdiction analysis, finding or sanction and no published FIFA reasons identifying the complete decision-making panel, while Trump's account establishes a reported call sequence rather than proof that the call caused the disciplinary result. [1]

Endorsement and adjudication answer different questions, as member associations can support a president while an oversight body still owes the public a decision about whether it has authority to review him, and the letters cannot substitute for acknowledgment of the complaint, identification of the applicable rule, evidence review, recusals or an appeal route.

Infantino's support is therefore a fact about his power base rather than a disposition of FairSquare's case, and the next consequential document is the IOC's reasoned answer, whether it accepts jurisdiction, refers the matter or declines review.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin