​By Rohith Nair Aug 5 (Reuters) – FIFA apologised to its members for mistakes made over its abandoned proposal to sell commercial rights to the World Cup as the body’s leadership reaffirmed its support for President Gianni Infantino after a crisis meeting in Morocco on Wednesday. The proposal to sell a 20% stake in a new commercial rights entity to private investors ‌in a deal that would have raised about $4.2 billion provoked a fierce backlash and was withdrawn last Friday. Infantino bore the brunt of the criticism, including some from inside FIFA, which raised ‌questions over his re-election as president next March. “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,” the statement said. “In turn, the FIFA President reiterated his ​full support for the FIFA Secretary General and the FIFA administration for their necessary and outstanding work in the delivery of his vision.” Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom sent an internal memo to staff this week lamenting the “sad and reproachable series of events” that led to the project being “permanently abandoned”, two sources told Reuters. Grafstrom’s letter, which did not mention Infantino by name, noted that “individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go” but FIFA’s work would continue. His words echoed those of FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour, who said last week that staff had been “deceived” over the plan which he described as the project of one person. Wednesday’s FIFA statement noted that Infantino, president since 2016, ‌was “the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations”. FIFA said a ⁠separate letter had been sent to FIFA Council members and member associations apologising for the errors and promising a review. “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,” the statement added. With the proposal ⁠withdrawn, FIFA said it would “no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process”. FIERCE CRITICISM OF PROPOSAL FROM STAKEHOLDERS The proposal, which also drew scrutiny because of the involvement of a company with family links to U.S. President Donald Trump, prompted fierce criticism from European soccer’s governing body UEFA and other stakeholders. Infantino’s backdown last Friday did little to assuage those critics and a handful of European federations have withdrawn their backing for the 56-year-old Swiss Italian. UEFA said ​it ​had lost confidence in Infantino’s leadership, a stance shared by CONCACAF, which runs the game in North and Central America ​as well as the Caribbean. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) were also highly critical of the ‌way the proposal was presented as a fait acco