• Infantino said in 2023 equality was Fifa’s target

• Prize money could double but big gap will remain

Fifa is to fall short of gender equality with the prize money on offer at next year’s Women’s World Cup, despite making a record $15bn (£11.2bn) in revenue from this summer’s men’s tournament.

Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, said in 2023 that the organisation’s ambition was to have equality for the prize pot for 2027, saying: “Fifa is stepping up with actions, not just with words.” There had, therefore, been widespread hope across the women’s game that 2027’s prize pot would match the men’s on at least a per-team basis.

• Challenger’s identity could be approved by next week

• Arsène Wenger not thought to have entered reckoning

Uefa and its allies are close to identifying a candidate to run against Gianni Infantino in the Fifa election and could select the challenger as early as next week.

The clock is ticking on efforts to oppose Infantino in March, with candidates required to confirm they are standing by 18 November, but there is growing confidence those attempts are nearing a successful resolution. Discussions with potential nominees have gained momentum despite recent setbacks that included a U-turn by the Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, who surprisingly endorsed Infantino’s push for a fourth term.

• AFC president Sheikh Salman praises and hugs Infantino

• It had stood with Uefa and Concacaf against him

The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as Fifa’s president in a turnaround in its stance from two months ago when it criticised the head of football’s world governing body for a breach of trust.

The AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, speaking at the body’s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, embraced Infantino with a large hug in front of the membership as he delivered his endorsement.

The first awarding marked the apex of Gianni Infantino’s hubris. A new version could highlight the good in the world of soccer

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Poor Fifa peace prize. Unloved, unliked, mocked, tainted by association with its first winner. And now demoted, too, after Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, dumped the thing on the global governing body’s “social responsibility committee” to look after. To redeem it, rather than to ditch it, to spare Infantino the embarrassment of acknowledging that his fake prize was really just a fake prize all along.

Here is where we should probably acknowledge that, as fake prizes go, and in the context of what it was intended to accomplish, the first awarding of the Fifa peace prize was an unqualified success. It achieved exactly what it was meant to, made by Infantino to flatter Donald Trump, the man he needed to keep on his side to safeguard the riches to be extracted from the North American market in order to consolidate his power base within Fifa. Trump, the gullible buffoon, was pleased as punch – handed a big, golden bauble and a medal he placed around his own neck – and briefly forgot about the Nobel peace prize he desperately covets.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: US Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

• Backlash greeted award of prize to US president

• Fifa committee to make recommendations this year

Donald Trump is likely to end up as the only political leader awarded the Fifa peace prize after Gianni Infantino was told at Thursday’s meeting of the Fifa council to make major changes or scrap the controversial award.

The Guardian has learned that several council members demanded the award be abolished and others called for the prize to be depoliticised, with Fifa’s football social responsibility committee to make a recommendation before the next council meeting in Doha on 16 December.

• Infantino failed to provide answers to questions

• European leaders expect someone will stand against him

European football leaders are increasingly confident they will find a candidate to stand against Gianni Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election, with the heads of the English and German football associations questioning his fitness to govern after a three-and-a-half-hour council meeting.

Infantino began the long-awaited gathering of Fifa’s 37-strong executive board by apologising for failing to consult them over his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan but failed to provide answers to dozens of questions posed by the European FAs on a range of subjects including the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, Donald Trump’s Fifa peace prize and the Folarin Balogun affair, when the USA striker’s World Cup suspension was overturned after lobbying from the US president.

• World Cup sell-off, Balogun and peace prize on agenda

• Opponents will press home need for independent review

Gianni Infantino will be questioned by Fifa council members over his involvement in the aborted World Cup sell-off plan, the Folarin Balogun affair and the decision to award Donald Trump the inaugural Fifa peace prize at what is expected to be a heated meeting at the world governing body’s headquarters on Thursday.

The Fifa president rejected repeated calls for an extraordinary general meeting of council in the summer after the emergence of the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposals, but will meet his critics for the first time since then in Zurich, with one attender predicting that the talks could be “explosive”.

The inaugural Asean Cup, not to be confused with the existing Hyundai Asean Cup, may not live long in the memory but Fifa president sees benefit

It’s probably not a coincidence, what with Fifa’s presidential election getting closer all the time, but Gianni Infantino has been sweeping through Asian member associations. There he was attending a ceremony in Macau to inaugurate new headquarters, signing an agreement in Mongolia to build a new national stadium and in Uzbekistan to open a Fifa Arena mini-pitch. All wise moves as Asia is still divided when it comes to the battle for the biggest job in world football. A number of associations have expressed support for the incumbent; others have openly opposed him; some will decide upon seeing the other candidate; some will follow the lead of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) leadership and vote against Infantino; others will just wait.

The culmination of Infantino’s trip were the two finals of the inaugural Fifa Asean Cup, a new tournament for south-east Asia and a few invited guests. In Saturday’s final of the Asean Challenge Cup, the second-tier event held in Hong Kong, Infantino was greeted with chants of “Fifa Mafia”, but 48 hours later in Indonesia for the main event the reception for the 56-year-old was a little warmer. Jakarta is already onside and did Infantino a huge favour by winning a tournament that was very much his brainchild.

• Nigeria filed complaint over ineligible players in playoff

• Fifa investigators aware of situation before tournament

Fifa allowed the Democratic Republic of the Congo to compete at this summer’s World Cup despite reports suggesting an internal investigation found that the country had fielded an ineligible player in qualifying.

The player in question, the goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi, starred for his nation at the tournament, including against England in the last 32. Mpasi, who was born in France and played for Les Bleus at youth level, had never completed the process of switching nationalities, Fifa reportedly found. No punishment was levied against the Congolese federation, Fecofa.

• SFV withdraws support after endorsing candidacy in June

• Swiss-born Infantino has faced calls for his resignation

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) has withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino’s bid for another term as Fifa president, the organisation confirmed on Wednesday.

The executive committee reversed its support for Infantino, who was born in Brig, an Alpine town in Valais canton in southern Switzerland, in a meeting this week after endorsing his candidacy in June.

• Aleksander Ceferin condemns FFE and Balogun affair

• Tells club chiefs it is ‘time to say enough’ to Fifa

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has attacked his embattled Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino in a scathing takedown of the failed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and other recent scandals, saying “the emperor is naked” and declaring “it is time to say ‘enough’”.

In a pointed address to the European Football Clubs (EFC) general assembly, Ceferin did not mention Infantino by name but made clear his view that Fifa’s leadership must change. He drew on the event’s location, Copenhagen, to make a comparison to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes in assessing Infantino’s conduct, making clear reference to the peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and last summer’s Folarin Balogun affair along with the FFE scheme.

• Uefa accused of trying to influence presidential election

• Fifa court filing denies claim of FFE undervaluation

Fifa accused Uefa of waging a “misinformation campaign” and trying to influence the race for its presidency as world football’s governing body urged a US ⁠court to reject a discovery ⁠request linked to a ​controversial investment proposal.

Last month Uefa asked a US federal court for permission to obtain testimony and documents for use in a planned criminal complaint in Switzerland against Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, ⁠over an abandoned plan to transfer World Cup commercial rights into a subsidiary called Fifa Forward Enterprise.

• Fifa president says: ‘The ambition is welcome’

• Infantino mounts fresh defence of failed FFE scheme

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, is poised to bow to demands from Uefa and Concacaf to distribute more money from its $6bn cash reserves to member associations.

In a letter sent on Monday to all six confederation presidents and copied to members of the Fifa council, Infantino indicated his willingness to “support the greatest level of additional funding”, without committing to the $10m-per-member that has been proposed.

• Four leagues says Fifa governance ‘not fit for purpose’

• They criticise ‘expansionism’ and want more input

The Premier League has joined forces with La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga to call for urgent governance reform at Fifa after the World Cup sell-off debacle (FFE) as Gianni Infantino prepares to seek a fourth term as president.

Their strongly worded statement is the latest indication that Infantino’s willingness to hold an external governance review does not go far enough, after the Guardian revealed that several Fifa council members have rejected that proposal.

• Council members also want Balogun affair included

• Fifa president says review letter been well received

Fifa council members will demand that Gianni Infantino include the abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the Folarin Balogun affair in his proposed external review of Fifa’s governance.

In a letter sent to all 211 of Fifa’s member associations on Monday, Infantino said he would ask the council to commission a review of “Fifa’s current governance framework for major strategic initiatives” at its next meeting, in Zurich on 15 October, but he faces an internal battle over its terms of reference.

Fifa president continues to lobby for re-election despite no other candidates coming forward to challenge him

For Gianni Infantino there is no international break. The Fifa president is widely expected to make an appearance at the United Nations general assembly this week in New York, where he will lobby heads of state for their federations’ support as he continues his campaign to be re-elected next year.

Infantino has not been idle during the lull since Fifa abandoned its World Cup sell-off plan last month, instead crisscrossing the globe on a private jet provided by Qatar Airways as part of its sponsorship deal with world football’s governing body.

• Payout of at least $10m to each association proposed

• Leaders want plan to be considered by Fifa Council

The presidents of Uefa and Concacaf have written to Gianni Infantino requesting that Fifa release money from its $6bn (£4.5bn) reserves to its member associations, stating that the plan to fund them via the doomed Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme was unnecessary given the cash pile it is sitting on.

Aleksander Ceferin and Victor Montagliani proposed a payout of at least $10m to each of Fifa’s 211 member associations (MAs), initially as a one-off during the 2027-2030 commercial cycle. They called for an independent review of Fifa’s financial position and said their own study “raises an important question as to whether the proposed transaction was necessary to deliver greater resources to the MAs”.

• Letter sent before Fifa council meeting on 15 October

• Infantino under pressure before presidential election

The Football Association’s chair, Debbie Hewitt, has written to Gianni Infantino demanding that Fifa releases all documents relating to his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan and the decision to lift the USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension during last summer’s tournament.

The Guardian revealed last month that Hewitt and other members of the Fifa council were lobbying for an independent review of the proposed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) sell-off and the Balogun controversy. Their requests have been formalised in a letter sent to the Fifa president and his deputy, Mattias Grafström.