• David Owori, SC Villa captain

Uganda international footballer David Owori, captain of one of the country’s biggest soccer clubs, has died after an assault in the capital Kampala, police said.

Owori, 28, captain of ‌SC Villa, was critically injured by unidentified assailants in a suburb of Kampala on Tuesday, police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said.

He was found unconscious by passers-by, who took him to a nearby hospital.

He was transferred to another hospital where he was later pronounced ⁠dead, Kawala said.

“David was not just a footballer. He was both a leader and an inspiration to a generation. As Captain of SC Villa, he led with courage, humility and passion. In the Uganda Cranes jersey, he carried the hopes of a nation,” the Federation of Uganda Football Associations said in a statement.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has received the “full support” of senior directors on Wednesday at a crisis meeting in Morocco.

Infantino has come under increasing pressure, even from within his organisation, over his handling of the aborted plan to open the World Cup to private investment , fuelling calls for him to step down.

In a statement Wednesday, FIFA’s leadership acknowledged “that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to media”.

After Wednesday’s meeting in Rabat, the FIFA Secretary General and members of the FIFA Management Board in attendance said in a statement they “reaffirmed their full support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 FIFA Member Associations.

•Gianni Infantino

President Gianni Infantino held emergency talks with other FIFA directors in Morocco on Wednesday, a source told AFP, amid a wave of criticism over his now-shelved plan to open the World Cup to private investment.

Infantino has come under increasing pressure, even from within FIFA, over his handling of the proposal, and calls for him to step down have grown since he abandoned it last Saturday.

One of those believed to be at the meeting is FIFA’s secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom, whose internal email to staff criticising the plan was leaked on Tuesday.

Infantino, a 56-year-old Swiss lawyer — who is holding the meeting in FIFA’s Africa regional office in Sale close to Rabat — was in Morocco to celebrate last week’s Feast of the Enthronement.

Morocco is to co-host the 2030 World Cup and Moroccan Football chief Fouzi Lekjaa is one of the few to have publicly supported Infantino since the humiliating climbdown.

In a related development, former Real Madrid and Barcelona star Luis Figo has called for “deceitful” Gianni Infantino to quit as pressure mounts on the under-fire FIFA president.

Infantino is fighting to save his job after a fierce backlash against his plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup.

The 56-year-old wanted to sell a 20 per cent stake in the World Cup to private equity investors through his FIFA Forward Enterprise.

The plan sparked a cascade of criticism for Infantino and has been rejected by three continental confederations, forcing the FIFA chief to ditch his divisive idea.