Fifa has firmly condemned what it describes as a coordinated and persistent campaign aimed at weakening the organisation and its president, Gianni Infantino.
The response came after a Daily Telegraph article, external source alleged that a woman said to have been involved with Infantino received severance money from Uefa following an affair during his time as its general secretary.
A Fifa representative told the newspaper that Infantino firmly rejects the accusations and considers them entirely false.
The organisation has also denounced claims it considers unsupported and clearly inaccurate, stressing that conjecture and implication must not be treated as established truth.
Infantino has faced mounting criticism from Uefa and several European football federations over the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.
Under the FFE proposal, a separate business would have been established to oversee commercial operations and ticketing rights, with a 21% stake transferred to a private investment firm.
Uefa has declared that it no longer has confidence in Infantino, while Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness urged the Swiss-Italian official to step down on Friday.
The authority overseeing European football says a possible boycott of Fifa events is still being considered because it has not received guarantees that the FFE proposal will remain permanently abandoned.
In its Saturday statement, Fifa said its president had been chosen through a democratic election by the organisation’s member associations and continues to hold office under their authority.
The organisation added that it has become increasingly clear that certain parties are engaged in a coordinated and continuing attempt to damage both Fifa and its president.
It argued that individuals who lack the backing of member associations should not use accusations, suggestions or misleading information to obtain an outcome they could not secure through the organisation’s recognised democratic procedures.
Most of the resistance to Infantino has emerged from European football.
However, the Mexican Football Federation departed from the position of its regional authority, Concacaf, by publicly supporting Infantino.
Reflecting the stance taken by South American authority Conmebol, it said any effort to dismiss Infantino without a ballot involving all 211 Fifa member nations would be opposed.
Infantino also retains unanimous support from all 54 members of the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
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