• 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.