In a development that has stunned absolutely no one, FIFA has confirmed that Gianni Infantino will remain as president following a crisis meeting of its senior executives in Rabat. The meeting, which was held to address the fallout from the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal, concluded with the leadership team reaffirming their full support for Infantino, who has also sent written apologies to the Fifa council and the 211 member associations for failing to consult them over the World Cup sell-off.

Infantino spent the day in talks with FIFA’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, and chief legal officer, Emilio García Silvero, during which he expressed his determination to stay on despite mounting criticism from Uefa and Concacaf, both of which have called for a review of FIFA’s governance. In another indication that he plans to carry on as before, Infantino will fly to Colombia on Thursday to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, in the city of Cali.

In a statement that read like a corporate press release written by someone who just discovered the word 'synergy', FIFA said: 'Following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the Fifa secretary general and members of the Fifa management board in attendance reaffirmed their full support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 Fifa member associations.' The statement also noted that Infantino reiterated his full support for the secretary general and the administration for their 'necessary and outstanding work' in delivering his vision.

The meeting also discussed how processes, communications, and interactions between the president, secretary general, and management board 'can and should always be continuously improved in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency.' Because nothing says 'we've learned our lesson' like a bureaucratic commitment to vague process improvement.

While acknowledging that Infantino has apologised for his role in the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal, which would have seen 21% of Fifa’s commercial rights sold to private investors, the statement also insisted that FIFA will not tolerate further criticisms of its governance. 'Mistakes made were acknowledged,' the statement continued. 'It was agreed that it was not the intention for the Fifa council and Fifa member associations to feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently.'

In a separate letter to the Fifa council and member associations, an apology was made for these errors, along with a commitment to ensure they do not happen again. A review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the Fifa council at its next scheduled meeting. The FFE proposal is now off the table, but FIFA has warned that it will 'no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process.'

Uefa is unlikely to be cowed, however, with the European governing body continuing to search for a candidate to stand against Infantino in the presidential election next March, which will also take place in Rabat. In the meantime, Infantino and Grafström appeared together at the Malawi v Zambia Women’s Africa Cup of Nations group game on Wednesday as a show of solidarity, having also released a jointly signed letter on social media echoing the FIFA statement. Because nothing says 'we're united' like a photo op at a women's football match after a governance crisis.