Gianni Infantino will face football leaders who want him out of his post on Thursday, when he meets FIFA’s senior officials for the first time since his plan to sell a stake in FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup, fell apart. The gathering is a FIFA Council meeting in Zurich.
Heads of three regional confederations have called on Infantino to resign: UEFA in Europe, the AFC in Asia and CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean. Their representatives will attend the Zurich meeting, and they will be joined by counterparts from Africa, South America and Oceania.
Failed stake sale plan returns to the council agenda
The council will discuss the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme, which Infantino was forced to drop within days of unveiling it in July. Under that plan, he proposed selling a minority stake in a FIFA commercial subsidiary to private investors. A company launched by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, was named as the proposed lead investor.
Members are also expected to address a wider set of issues, including:
- FIFA’s financial reserves and how much money it can release to member associations
- Its disciplinary procedures and governance framework
- The Peace Prize, which was controversially awarded to Trump last year
Leaders split over Infantino’s future and FIFA’s powers
The 37-member council will also look at governance. Some of the sport’s most powerful figures want to limit Infantino’s authority if they cannot force him out of office. Aleksander Ceferin of UEFA, Salman Al Khalifa of the AFC and Victor Montagliani of CONCACAF have all said it is time for a change at the top of FIFA.
Infantino, who is 56, will seek re-election in March 2027. Potential candidates have until November 18 to submit their nominations. Last week, former Switzerland and Tottenham Hotspur defender Ramon Vega said he intended to stand, but he has not confirmed whether he has the five national association backers the race requires.
Infantino has been building support of his own. He received a standing ovation when he met African football leaders in Cape Verde last week, and he is expected to be backed by South America at next year’s election in Rabat, Morocco. Despite the AFC’s criticism, many Asian countries, including a bloc of Arab nations, have offered their support, according to people familiar with the matter. Those sources said his opponents had little chance of finding a replacement but were determined to isolate him and reduce his powers.
So far, Infantino’s critics have not agreed on a candidate. Ceferin has chosen to stand for another term as UEFA president, and several media outlets have reported that Montagliani is likely to do the same at CONCACAF.
Development fund plan meets doubts over reform
FIFA is preparing a $6.35bn development fund to run for four years, a source close to the matter told a news agency on Wednesday. The plan is due to be approved at Thursday’s council meeting. It covers the 2026-2030 period and would distribute money to FIFA’s 211 member federations as well as the regional confederations. Part of the funding would come from financial reserves built up after a commercially successful 2026 World Cup.
An earlier report first disclosed that the plan would pay $25m to each member federation. That is well above the $10m that Ceferin and Montagliani have called for. Last month, UEFA and CONCACAF urged FIFA to release $10m to each of its member associations, as a counterproposal to Infantino’s FFE scheme, which offered associations $20m in development funding and the possibility of a further $20m.
Thursday’s meeting is the first of its kind since April 28. It comes amid a governance crisis after Infantino announced earlier this year that he wanted to open FIFA’s premium competitions, such as the World Cup, to private investors. That idea was eventually dropped after widespread criticism across football, with a rebellion led by UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC. At the end of September, Infantino began a consultation with federations on reforming how the body operates, and said the first proposals could be examined as early as Thursday.
Emanuel Medeiros, founder and Global CEO of Sport Integrity Global Alliance, a pressure group that campaigns for better governance in sport, said FIFA needed a “frank discussion” in Zurich. “The eyes of the world are on them,” he said, adding that football expects the council to set up a genuinely independent, comprehensive and transparent governance review.
Miguel Maduro, a lawyer and politician who chaired FIFA’s Governance Committee in 2016 before Infantino dismissed him, said he would be surprised if the meeting produced anything meaningful. He said the council might announce a working group or an independent review, but that the credibility of either would be limited given FIFA’s record. He warned that an exercise that is not genuinely independent and enforceable could amount to a “window dressing exercise” aimed at easing public pressure.
