• Critics view Fernandes job as move to shore up position

• Fifa says change is designed to make sport ‘truly global’

Gianni Infantino has separated Fifa’s management of the Caribbean countries from the rest of Concacaf in a move widely regarded by his opponents as an attempt to split the alliance to remove him from office.

Concacaf covers North and Central America as well as the Caribbean and was previously managed as one bloc. But the Guardian has learned that the former Switzerland midfielder Gelson Fernandes, an Infantino loyalist, has been appointed as the director of member associations for the Caribbean, in addition to his position looking after Fifa’s African members.