Three ways Gianni Infantino could be removed as FIFA president after the World Cup sell-off controversy
Gianni Infantino is facing more and more pressure to keep his job as FIFA president, and there are three ways he could be removed.
Earlier this week, the football world was shocked when Infantino shared plans to invite outside investors to put money into a new FIFA branch called the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). A company from the US, Thrive Capital—owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Joshua Kushner—was expected to lead the group aiming to raise $20 billion.
All 211 FIFA member associations had until September 19 to support the plan and get up to £30.1 million. But many federations quickly joined together to oppose it.
UEFA was very angry about the idea and said on July 30 that they would boycott the World Cup if the plan went ahead. Concacaf and AFC agreed with UEFA’s position.
Infantino’s senior advisor, Carlos Codeiro, quit after calling the deal “bad for the game.” FIFA’s COO, Kevin Lamour, also threatened to resign, feeling “deceived” by Infantino, who eventually had to scrap his plans early on August 1 after worldwide criticism.
UEFA responded strongly to Infantino’s decision to back down, saying they lost trust in him and called the plan a “shabby, back-room deal.” The FA even asked for a full “review of FIFA’s leadership” in a statement on X, as more people called for Infantino to step down.
On Saturday, former FA chairman David Bernstein said he worried Infantino might stay in power if he still has support from national associations. He said, “In most places, if a leader had to back down from something this big, they’d probably be shown the door. But FIFA isn’t like that. If enough national groups back him, he could stay.”
Luckily, according to Sky News sports correspondent Rob Harris, efforts to remove Infantino are picking up. There are three ways he could lose his job.
The first is a vote of no confidence. If 20% of FIFA’s members (43 countries) request it, an emergency FIFA congress can be held within three months to vote on dismissing him.
Another way is executive dismissal. FIFA’s ethics committee can investigate if Infantino breaks any ethics rules based on complaints, and could ban him for a long time. But since there’s no clear ethics violation, this seems unlikely.
Finally, Infantino could be voted out in the next election, which is coming up in March. If the congress picks someone else, he would lose his job.
Keep an eye out for updates on this story—it feels like it might just be a matter of time before his ten-year run as president ends.