FIFA Circles the Wagons Around Infantino as Rebel .

FIFA’s top brass have publicly closed ranks around President Gianni Infantino, issuing a strong vote of confidence just days after he was forced to bin a massive commercial rights plan that sparked an unprecedented mutiny within global football.

The show of solidarity came out of an emergency huddle in Rabat, Morocco, on Wednesday. The meeting was called after Europe’s UEFA and other major confederations turned up the heat so high that they threatened to derail Infantino’s smooth path to a fourth term next March.

In a carefully worded statement, FIFA made it clear that Secretary.General Mattias Grafstrom and the rest of the management board are fully behind their boss pointing out that he remains "the only official elected by the 211 Member Associations." Infantino returned the favor, pledging his backing to Grafstrom and his admin team.

The whole mess started when Infantino quietly pushed a proposal called "FIFA Forward Enterprise." The idea was to flog a 20% stake in a new commercial rights venture to private investors, banking a cool $4.2 billion. But it backfired spectacularly when it emerged the venture had ties to a company linked to US President Donald Trump's family.

Senior officials have now admitted, behind closed doors, that "mistakes were made." FIFA says it's already sent a formal apology to its council and member associations, and promised a full review and report. But the organization also struck a defiant tone, vowing it "will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity" and is ready to take "all necessary measures" to defend its reputation.

The last few days have been nothing short of chaotic. UEFA publicly declared it had lost faith in Infantino's leadership and even sent FIFA a "document preservation letter"essentially a legal warning shot. One of Infantino’s own senior advisors, Carlos Cordeiro, quit in protest. Even Arsene Wenger, the usually mild mannered former Arsenal boss, distanced himself from the plan.

The British press has been buzzing with reports that UEFA, along with Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation, were prepared to effectively paralyze FIFA or even launch breakaway rival competitions unless Infantino stepped aside. That said, he hasn't been entirely abandoned; Qatar and several African federations have publicly stuck by him.

For now, Infantino appears to have weathered the immediate storm, but with confederations still bristling and a March Congress looming, the battle for control of world football's top job is far from over.