Uefa has posed a great number of questions about FFE.
“When was the idea of FFE first explored, by whom and with what objective?” Uefa asked. “Who within Fifa authorised the development of the project, and which members of the Fifa administration were involved?
“What concrete measures will Fifa put in place to ensure that the shortcomings identified in the FFE process cannot occur again in the future?”
Uefa requested information on whether Infantino would have held or expected to hold any position, role or function in FFE, either during or following his tenure as Fifa president.
The relationship with Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital was covered in detail, asking why an agreement granting exclusivity to the company was signed without prior consultation of the Fifa Council.
“Why was Thrive Capital selected as lead investor, without any competitive tendering process and under conditions of strict confidentiality, despite its links to the family of the recipient of the Fifa Peace Prize?” Uefa asked.
Kushner is the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, while the US president was awarded the Peace Prize.
Uefa also requested answer about the award of the Peace Prize, specifically who decided to establish it, for what purpose, and who decided that Trump should receive it.
When the FFE plan was revealed in the days following the World Cup final, Infantino told the 211 member associations (MAs) they would receive $40m (£30m) if they backed it. He then set a deadline of 19 September for federations to accept his plans if they wanted to access an initial $20m (£15m).
However, once the scheme was abandoned, Uefa and Concacaf called on Fifa to pay at least $10m (£7.5m) from its cash reserves to each of the MAs and, last week, Infantino agreed, proposing to increase the amount of money handed out for football development across the world by $3.4bn (£2.6bn).
The releasing of cash from its reserves will result in double the level of planned distribution funding for MAs from 2027 to 2030, with $25m (£19m) available per member association.
“Why was substantially increased funding for MAs presented in connection with FFE and external investment, rather than being financed directly from Fifa’s own resources?” Uefa has asked.
“Given Fifa’s strong financial position, why was it considered necessary to seek investment from private investors? What financial or strategic advantages would such an arrangement have offered compared with funding football development directly from Fifa’s own resources, particularly in light of Fifa’s subsequent proposal to do precisely that on a substantially increased scale?”
Remember the FIFA Peace Prize awarded to United States President Donald Trump six months before the World Cup? Well, it is now close to being scrapped, which would make the US president its first and only winner.
Less than a year after FIFA President Gianni Infantino extolled Trump in the US capital while presenting the award at the World Cup 2026 draw, several members of the FIFA Council are questioning its merit and have demanded changes, including scrapping the award.
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The calls for scrutiny come at a time when Infantino faces ongoing criticism for his World Cup sell-off plan, which also led to calls for his removal from office.
So what was the prize about, and why might it be scrapped? Here’s a look:
What is the FIFA Peace Prize?
On November 5, football’s global governing body announced a new annual award called the “FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World”.
FIFA said the award was created to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace”.
Trump thanked FIFA and called the award “one of the great honours of my life”.
He and Infantino are close allies, and the FIFA chief had made it clear that he thought Trump should have won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
“This is your prize. This is your peace prize,” Infantino said at the glitzy, celebrity-studded ceremony at Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center.
Infantino has repeatedly spoken about football as a unifier for the world, but the prize is a departure from the federation’s traditional focus on sport.
Critics pointed out that the recognition came less than 24 hours after the Trump administration carried out a deadly air strike in the Caribbean.
Two months later, the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, assassinating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran and hitting nuclear and military sites around the country.
The US-Israel war on Iran has gone on for months with Trump saying this week that he will not attack Iran again before the November 3 midterm elections in the US.
Why might FIFA scrap the award?
Several FIFA member nations demanded the discontinuation of the award during Thursday’s FIFA Council meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, according to reports in British media.
Others called for the prize to no longer be handed out to politicians.
As a result, FIFA’s 22-member Football Social Responsibility Committee was tasked with assessing the merits of the award. It is expected to make a recommendation before the next council meeting in Doha, Qatar, on December 16.
Debbie Hewitt, a FIFA vice president and president of the English Football Association, told the media at the council briefing that the committee “will consider, first of all, how the peace prize came about, whether it should have come about, whether it should have been awarded in the way that it was, who made that decision and whether or not it should be taken out or whether it should be reformed”.
What has FIFA said?
Al Jazeera has reached out to FIFA for comment and was referred to Infantino’s statement on it: “For the FIFA Peace Prize, it was decided that the Football Social Responsibility Committee will be tasked to analyse it, provide a proposal, and also, there, a decision will be taken at the next FIFA Council meeting.”
Has the FIFA Peace Prize faced opposition?
Yes.
In October, the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) made parallel filings with FIFA committees in relation to three recent issues, one of which was related to the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize.
“The purpose is to raise these issues formally with the appropriate bodies, to have them examined, relevant evidence obtained and accountability for the conclusions reached,” the NFF said in a statement.
The NFF has repeatedly raised questions about the award, and in April, its president, Lise Klaveness, said FIFA should scrap its peace prize to avoid getting drawn into politics.
“We want to see it abolished. We don’t think it’s part of FIFA’s mandate to give such a prize. We think we have a Nobel institute that does that job independently already,” Klaveness said.
Earlier, human rights group FairSquare filed a complaint with the FIFA Ethics Committee, accusing Infantino of breaching his duty of neutrality by supporting Trump.
Infantino has been under severe pressure since he announced a plan in July to open premium FIFA competitions, such as the World Cup, to private investors [Omar Marques/Getty Images]
‘Mockery’ of FIFA human rights policy
The criticism of the award isn’t limited to football associations.
In late April, Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine said football’s credibility as a force for good has been undermined by FIFA, and he accused FIFA of making a mockery of its human rights policy.
“As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like the one that we saw awarding this peace prize makes a mockery of what they’re trying to do with the human rights charter and trying to use football as a global driving force for good and positive change in the world,” Irvine told the Reuters news agency in an interview.
“Decisions like that feel like they just set us back in the perceived market of what football currently is, especially at the top level, where it’s becoming so disconnected from society and the grassroots of what the game actually is and means in our communities and in the world.”
Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations official who has campaigned to suspend Israel from world football over its genocidal war in Gaza, called the award to Trump a “truly shameful development”.
Infantino has refused to take action against Israel, arguing that football “cannot solve geopolitical” issues.
“Not satisfied with two years of FIFA complicity in genocide in Palestine, Infantino and his cronies have now invented a new ‘peace prize’ in order to curry favour with Donald Trump,” Mokhiber told Al Jazeera.
He added that the award also aims to “obscure” Trump’s “disgraceful record” of support for Israel, his deadly strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and “gross violations of human rights” inside the US.
Growing pressure on Infantino
The scrutiny around the FIFA Peace Prize follows the recent backlash Infantino has faced.
Infantino has been under fire since his announcement in late July that he wanted to open FIFA’s premium competitions, such as the World Cup, to private investors.
That plan was ultimately abandoned in the face of widespread criticism with a rebellion led by the European governing body UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, which runs the sport in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Infantino has headed FIFA since 2016 and is running for re-election in March despite calls for him to stand down in the wake of the $4.2bn plan to sell a 20 per cent commercial stake in the World Cup.
Spain sanctioned by FIFA after incidents at Espanyol’s stadium in Barcelona, which staged the friendly with Egypt.
Published On 16 Oct 202616 Oct 2026
Spain have been fined $20,000 and ordered to partially close their stadium for their next friendly after supporters twice chanted Islamophobic slogans during the game against Egypt in March, FIFA said in a statement.
The sanctions relate to incidents at the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona, home of LaLiga club Espanyol, where some Spain fans chanted, “Who doesn’t jump is a Muslim” during a World Cup warm-up match which ended in a 0-0 draw.
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After the second occurrence of the chant, the stadium announcer issued a warning and the scoreboard displayed a message against discriminatory behaviour.
Spain winger Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim, condemned the chants at the time, describing them as disrespectful and intolerable and calling those responsible “ignorant and racist”.
Spanish police launched an investigation the following day, while world governing body FIFA later started disciplinary proceedings against the Spanish football federation (RFEF).
It argued that the word ‘Muslim’ was “neither insulting nor pejorative”, adding that the fans’ conduct should be assessed under FIFA’s Article 17, which covers political, ideological, religious or offensive messages, rather than Article 15, which deals with discrimination and racist abuse.
However, FIFA’s disciplinary committee rejected that argument, saying Article 15 does not require the explicit use of a slur and that a term can be discriminatory when used in context as “an insult, taunt, or marker of inferiority”.
FIFA fined the RFEF and ordered the closure of at least 15% of available seats for Spain’s next friendly.
President Gianni Infantino has apologised to the Fifa Council for his World Cup sell-off plan – but has been told he is not fit to lead unless he releases all of the documents and answers key questions.
The Fifa Council met in Zurich on Thursday for the first time since Infantino’s secret Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal emerged.
Under FFE, which Infantino scrapped within days, a portion of the commercial rights of football’s world governing body would have been given to a private investment firm.
Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt – a Fifa vice-president – said afterwards that many questions remained unanswered.
“One of the disappointing things is that we didn’t get answers to anything that we had specifically requested – for example getting the papers from FFE,” Hewitt said.
“I asked the question ‘why not?’ – and we were asked to submit those questions in writing.
“I think the man has to answer those questions and if he doesn’t answer those questions now, he’s not fit to be Fifa president – and that was what was shared in the meeting.”
Hewitt acknowledged there had been “some contrition” in Infantino’s apology.
“Then there were no holds barred in terms of what we felt about what had happened,” she added.
“What he really apologised for was not bringing it to the council. If you regret it that deeply, share it with us.”
Uefa – European football’s governing body – has been one of Infantino’s fiercest critics and has repeatedly called on him to stand down.
Asked if there was any change in stance from Uefa about Infantino, Hewitt added: “From my position, nothing has shifted. I’ve no new information that makes me feel any differently, other than we do have a president who is apologetic.”
Football’s global governing body is expected to change a rule that allowed a red card for USA forward Folarin Balogun to be controversially overturned during the World Cup, according to media reports on the agenda for Thursday’s FIFA council meeting in Zurich.
The decision-making body is convening for the first time since this year’s tournament, and a motion to prohibit such actions in the future will be top of the agenda. Members will also discuss the organisation’s funding, rules and other matters amid a turbulent time in the sport.
During the World Cup’s round-of-32 match, Balogun received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia in a 2-0 win for the home team. It triggered an automatic one-game suspension.
However, United States President Donald Trump urged FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the case, and Balogun’s red card was overturned, allowing him to play in the USA’s round-of-16 match against Belgium.
The decision to overturn Balogun’s red card ignited one of the tournament’s biggest controversies, with widespread criticism from football federations, former FIFA officials, experts and coaches.
The 37-member FIFA council is expected to vote on whether to prohibit disciplinary committees from overturning automatic match suspensions at the World Cup, but the Balogun controversy is unlikely to go away.
FIFA Vice President Debbie Hewitt is among the sport’s leaders who have asked Infantino to release all documents related to the case.
Thursday’s FIFA council meeting is the first since Infantino came under fire earlier this year for a now-shelved plan to sell a 20 percent stake in the World Cup’s commercial business to private investors.
Infantino has faced calls to resign from the leaders of three regional football confederations – UEFA (Europe), AFC (Asia) and CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean) – and their representatives will be present in Zurich for the FIFA meeting.
They will be joined by their counterparts from Africa, South America and Oceania.
Under the plan, Infantino proposed selling a minority stake in a FIFA commercial subsidiary to private investors, with a company launched by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, identified as the proposed lead investor.
The council will also address FIFA’s governance, with some of the sport’s most powerful figures determined to limit Infantino’s powers if they cannot force him out of office.
Infantino, 56, will stand for re-election in March 2027, with a November 18 deadline looming for potential candidates to submit their nominations.
Fifa is set to propose a $3.4bn (£2.6bn) increase in the amount of money it hands out for football development across the world.
World football’s governing body wants to release the money from its reserves in a move which BBC Sport has been told would double the level of planned distribution funding for 2027-2030.
The proposal will be made at a meeting of Fifa’s council on Thursday and comes at a time when the organisation is under pressure following president Gianni Infantino’s aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan.
Infantino wanted to sell stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors but faced huge criticism for the proposal, with Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation questioning his position.
In a letter then sent to Fifa’s six continental confederations, Infantino – who will be standing for re-election for a fourth time in March 2027 – said he would support “the greatest level of additional funding that can responsibly be delivered”.
Fifa will now offer extra money from its reserves in addition to the current $2.7bn budgeted to be paid to all 211 member associations, the confederations, regional associations and certain non-Fifa affiliated associations.
The breakdown is as follows:
• $25m (£19m) per member association
• $99m (£75m) for each of the six confederations
• $8.25m (£6.3m) for each of the 13 zonal/regional associations
• $1.1m (£836,000) for 100 member associations for travel and equipment solidarity
The terms of the distribution would be as follows:
• One third would be allocated to women’s and youth football development
• One third would be allocated to infrastructure (of which there shall be equal access to women’s and youth football)
• One third would be allocated to projects
The plan, including the eligibility, application, approval, disbursement, control and audit requirements, will be finalised by the Fifa council at its next meeting in December 2026.
It will all be subject to approval by the 77th Fifa congress in March 2027.
Gianni Infantino’s chances of being re-elected as Fifa president appear to have been given a major boost with potential rival Victor Montagliani set to remain as head of Concacaf.
The Canadian, 61, was widely seen as a possible candidate after Infantino’s failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors sparked a global backlash.
However, Montagliani never confirmed he wanted to challenge Infantino, and according to sources, he has now told colleagues that he will instead seek a final term as head of the confederation which governs North and Central America and the Caribbean.
As first reported by the Guardian, it means he will not stand against Infantino, 56, who is seeking a fourth term in March’s presidential election.
The rebellion against him, spearheaded by European governing body Uefa, must now try to identify a unifying candidate by the deadline of 18 November.
Meanwhile, Aleksander Ceferin will stand for a fourth term as Uefa president.
Ceferin informed delegates of his decision at a meeting of all 55 national association chiefs in Berlin.
Uefa also reaffirmed its opposition to Infantino as it published a 14-point plan to reform world football’s governing body.
At that point Ceferin, who was initially elected in 2016, was embroiled in a row over Uefa changing its statutes to allow him to serve for a fourth term.
However, there had been a growing expectation the 58-year-old would stand.
This has only been made more likely since Uefa launched its efforts to oust Infantino, who scrapped his sell-off plan following widespread opposition.
“I want to thank the national associations for their trust,” Ceferin said.
“We have faced extraordinary challenges over the past years, and we have faced them as one team. There is still important work ahead, and I have therefore accepted their request.
“My ambition remains the same: to keep European football united, make our game stronger and leave Uefa ready for the next generation.”
Ceferin has ruled out standing against Infantino himself but is committed to finding a candidate around which the game can unite in March’s FIfa election.
Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Ramon Vega says he intends to stand as a candidate in next year’s Fifa presidential election.
The 55-year-old is the first person to confirm they want to challenge Gianni Infantino, who has defied calls to step down in the wake of his failed plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, which has sparked a major backlash across football.
A former Switzerland centre-back, Vega also played for Celtic and Watford and has worked in finance since retiring from football in 2004.
“I am standing to reunite the global football family, deliver genuine and lasting reform, modernise Fifa for the 21st Century, restore stability and credibility, and rebuild the trust that our game urgently needs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa – president of the Asian Football Confederation – has written to Infantino, distancing himself from an external review of Fifa’s governance system.
In his letter – seen by BBC Sport – Sheikh Salman proposes that Fifa’s council sets up a working group to examine potential reforms, “rather than being outsourced to an external party”.
Last month, Infantino said he was “fully committed to leading Fifa” despite Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation calling for him to quit.
Vega considered running for Fifa’s top job in 2015 following the suspension of former president Sepp Blatter.
Four years later he said he would stand against Infantino, but failed to garner enough support to be included in the ballot, having required the backing of five of Fifa’s 211 member federations.
Candidates must also be proposed by a member association and have played an active role in the game for two of the past five years, as well as passing an eligibility check by a review committee.
“I am standing because my life has prepared me to serve the game,” Vega said in a statement announcing his candidacy.
“Football does not belong to presidents, confederations or administrators. Football is greater than any position, any individual or any institution.
“It is the people’s game and belongs to everyone: the players, coaches, referees, supporters, volunteers, clubs, leagues, associations and communities that give football its life.
“It belongs to every child discovering the game, every professional carrying the hopes of a nation, and the billions of supporters whose passion makes football the world’s game.
“Football must always come first. Yet for too long, division has fractured our football family.
“The current leadership has demoralised the game. Weak governance has damaged Fifa’s credibility and eroded trust across the global football family. We must stop this conflict from escalating.
“Ego-driven battles within football administration must never be allowed to damage those who matter most: the players, coaches, referees and supporters around the world. They are not responsible for these conflicts. They deserve better.”
Vega concluded: “Football is in the emergency room, on life support. We cannot wait any longer. Fifa needs a new direction and fundamental reform.
“We must reunite the football family, restore trust, bring stability and modernise Fifa’s governance. This requires decisive change – not cosmetic adjustments.”
Embattled FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been accused of a potential abuse of power and conflict of interest after the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) filed formal complaints to two FIFA committees.
Infantino’s aborted plan to open up the World Cup to private investors, the lifting of US forward Folarin Balogun’s suspension at the 2026 World Cup following an intervention by United States President Donald Trump, and FIFA’s awarding of a so-called Peace Prize to Trump form the basis of the filings.
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The first filing made on Tuesday “asks the Ethics Committee to examine the conduct of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and any other individuals identified through the investigation for potential breaches of FIFA’s Code of Ethics”.
The second filing is aimed at FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) and “asks whether FIFA’s governance, financial oversight, internal controls and decision-making processes [have] worked as intended”.
Lise Klaveness, the NFF’s straight-talking president and longtime critic of Infantino, told British media that Trump was the common thread in all three issues.
The venture capital firm of Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared, was to be the chief investor in the ill-fated FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan.
Infantino’s plan, launched just after this year’s hugely successful World Cup cohosted by Canada, Mexico and the US in July, would have allowed private investors to acquire stakes in a company created under the FFE initiative.
“FIFA Forward Enterprise is a governance issue, but it’s connected to the two other cases because [of] conflict of interest and abuse of position, potentially,” Klaveness said in her interview with a British newspaper.
“There is a line between all these three cases, and it’s the same political regime.”
Klaveness, a former international footballer, said Infantino had some serious questions to answer over a lack of transparency.
Balogun’s red card in the last-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina during the World Cup resulted in an automatic suspension for the match with Belgium.
But FIFA stepped in and suspended his ban, leading to widespread condemnation, especially when it emerged that Trump had intervened by phoning Infantino.
The FIFA Peace Prize award that Infantino presented to Trump in December has also been widely criticised.
“These are three very different factual cases, but they all have something in common that we want examined,” said Klaveness.
“Is it an abuse of power, an abuse of position? Is it a breach of political neutrality?
“Is it in accordance with the rules of governance, as the FIFA Council should be the strategic body, and the president shouldn’t really have any unilateral power?”
‘Misinformation campaign’
Klaveness, 45, had, in August, called upon Infantino to resign and forgo his bid to be elected to a fourth and final term as president.
The 56-year-old Swiss has insisted he will seek re-election in Rabat next March, and as yet no other candidate has declared themself.
Infantino, who was first elected in 2016, must secure a majority of the 211 votes from the organisation’s members in order to be re-elected.
The deadline to declare a candidacy is November 18.
Klaveness has said she will not be a candidate — despite some observers, including Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, believing she would be a good fit as FIFA chief.
Aleksander Ceferin, president of European football’s governing body UEFA, has said he is not interested.
UEFA have been unsparing in their verbal assaults on Infantino and FIFA, dismissing the FFE plan as “a shady and opaque backroom deal”.
The likeliest rival is thought to be Canadian Victor Montagliani, president of CONCACAF, whose body, along with UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has formed an anti-Infantino alliance.
However, while a swath of UEFA’s members have publicly withdrawn their support for the 56-year-old Swiss, some of the AFC’s associations, such as 2034 World Cup hosts Saudi Arabia and 2022 hosts Qatar, have pledged their loyalty to him.
African football’s governing body CAF and South America’s CONMEBOL are also supportive.
UEFA has also gone to a court in Florida in an attempt to access documents related to Infantino’s failed plan, hoping to gather evidence for a potential criminal complaint in Switzerland, where UEFA and FIFA are based.
The latter responded by accusing UEFA of a “misinformation campaign” and saying it was attempting to “influence” the election.
The computer hacker who released documents which led to the Premier League investigation into Manchester City says Fifa president Gianni Infantino “should have no place in the future of the game”.
City have been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine-year period, though they continue to deny any wrongdoing and have until 2 October to submit an appeal.
The Premier League investigation was launched following information released into the public domain by the Football Leaks website in 2018, via German publication Der Spiegel, and following a separate investigation by European football’s governing body Uefa.
In a message on X, external, Rui Pinto, creator of Football Leaks, repeated allegations from 2018 that Infantino intervened to help City and Paris St-Germain avoid financial fair play sanctions from European football’s governing body Uefa.
According to a report by Der Spiegel, external, the clubs overvalued sponsorship deals to help meet FFP rules and, when facing sanctions over the matter, the allegations in the documents state Infantino helped arrange more lenient punishments for them in 2014.
A PSG statement at the time said it “has always acted in full compliance with the laws and regulations enacted by sports institutions” and it “denies the allegations”.
“Since the introduction of Financial Fair Play, Paris St-Germain have been one of the most audited and scrutinised clubs in history,” the club added.
“Back in 2014, there was a man who was already aware of the irregularities involving Manchester City,” 37-year-old Portuguese Pinto wrote on Wednesday.
“The infamous Gianni Infantino, then Uefa general secretary, abused his authority, shared confidential documents and, in short, outmanoeuvred the investigatory chamber, doing everything in his power to ensure that both Manchester City and PSG would merely receive a fine, avoiding a deeper investigation that could have led to a Champions League ban.
“All of these details were also revealed through Football Leaks.
“Given his actions as Uefa general secretary and, more recently, as Fifa president, I can only say, in my humble opinion, that Gianni Infantino has become a cancer on football and should have no place in the future of the game.”
When the allegations first surfaced, Uefa stressed that it was within the remit of the general secretary to assist in such matters, adding: “This may include discussions, meetings, assistance to help find solutions, and other interactions to assist the [investigating body] in its work.”
Infantino similarly pointed to how his “job entails having discussions, having conversations, exchanging documents, drafts, ideas, whatever, on many, many, many, many, topics.
“So if then this is being portrayed as something bad, I think there’s not much I can do more than my job in an honest way, in a professional way and trying to defend the interests of football.”
BBC Sport has contacted Fifa following Pinto’s latest statement.
Infantino has come under increasing pressure following his now-shelved plans to sell stakes in the World Cup.
European football’s governing body Uefa accused Infantino of “criminal mismanagement” over the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme, while the Swiss Football Association (SFV) is the latest association to withdraw its support for the Fifa president.
“The decision follows a comprehensive reassessment of developments over the past few months,” an SFV statement read.
“From the SFV’s perspective, various incidents raise fundamental questions regarding leadership, governance, transparency and decision-making processes within Fifa.”
Both Fifa and Uefa are based in Switzerland.
Infantino will stand for election for a fourth time in March 2027, with his opponents having until 18 November to find an alternative candidate.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is willing to discuss the disbursement of millions of dollars to the member associations of football’s global governing body as the Swiss chief seeks re-election to the post he has held for 10 years amid growing opposition.
The amount of the distributions to individual nations will be on the agenda of the FIFA Council’s October 15 meeting, according to a letter Infantino sent to the heads of the six regional confederations, as reported by media in the United States on Monday.
“I will not prejudge the amount,” Infantino wrote, according to one report. “I will support the greatest level of additional funding that can responsibly be delivered through FIFA’s proper governance process, applied fairly and supported by transparent and auditable arrangements. The ambition is welcome. The financial evidence, governance and implementation must now support it.”
“A single figure can begin the discussion, but it cannot complete a global policy. I have therefore instructed the Secretary General to consolidate all submissions into one integrated assessment for consideration by the FIFA Council.”
The move is seen as Infantino’s latest attempt to placate regional football bodies, as well as their chiefs, in a bid to hold on to his position as the most powerful man in football.
Earlier this month, the 56-year-old confirmed his bid amid widespread criticism of his leadership and the growing threat of legal proceedings.
Infantino has faced stiff opposition since the fallout from his proposed plan to sell approximately 20 percent of a proposed new entity, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), focused on the commercial and operational facets of the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments.
The Swiss-Italian has been the most powerful man in world football over the past 10 years, but has increasingly lost support from regional football confederations and national associations. Last month, he appeared to be pulling out all the stops in a bid to retain his position, despite growing calls for his ousting and wide-ranging disapproval of his plans.
A joint statement with leagues from Spain, Italy and Germany accused Infantino of actively promoting “exploitative ideas rather than safeguarding against them”.
He is seen as a divisive figure in international football, with his close ties to some of the most powerful global leaders and plans for maximising revenue from football viewed as a threat to the game.
With fewer than six months until the next round of elections for FIFA’s presidency, Infantino appears to be losing ground among his usual backers.
FIFA presidents are limited to three terms, each lasting four years.
However, in 2022, Infantino successfully argued that his first spell in charge, which began when he was elected at an extraordinary FIFA Congress in 2016 following Sepp Blatter’s resignation, should not count towards that limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.
His plans to run for a fourth term have been questioned by critics and rights groups, who have asked FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) to block the re-election bid.
The financial discussion comes in the wake of UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC calling for Infantino to resign over the plan.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF’s Victor Montagliani recently wrote a letter to FIFA, seeking payments such as the one Infantino addressed in his letter. Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, head of the Asian Football Confederation, made a similar request, per the reports.
Among the investors in FFE was to be Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump is a close ally of Infantino.
Infantino subsequently abandoned the private equity plan, but he has refused to resign, and he plans to run for re-election in March. With seven weeks remaining for candidates to announce their intention to oppose Infantino, no challenger has stepped forward.
Had Infantino’s FFE plan gone through, each member nation would have received at least $20m. The letter from UEFA and CONCACAF asks for every member association to receive a minimum of $10m from FIFA’s reserves, according to the reports.
Gianni Infantino has indicated a greater amount of money could be distributed to Fifa members from its estimated £4.4bn cash reserves.
In a letter seen by BBC Sport, and sent to the governing body’s six continental confederations on Monday, Fifa president Infantino said he would support “the greatest level of additional funding that can responsibly be delivered”.
Infantino has come under increasing pressure over his aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, which proposed selling stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors, sparking a major backlash.
The proposal will be considered by the Fifa Council when they meet on 15 October.
“I will not prejudge the amount,” Infantino said in the letter.
“A single figure can begin the discussion, but it cannot complete a global policy.”
Infantino issued his latest defence of the failed proposal to sell a slice of the World Cup commercial rights that brought calls for his resignation, again claiming it had been intended to generate additional money for the game.
“The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to enable Fifa to invest more in football,” wrote the Swiss-Italian.
Earlier this month, Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt, a Fifa vice-president, told Infantino to release all documents relating to his controversial plan, and called for an independent review of FFE.
Infantino will stand for election for a fourth time in March 2027, with his opponents having until 18 November to find an alternative candidate.
The Premier League has joined three of its top European counterparts in calling for “fundamental” reform of the way that Fifa is run, claiming its president Gianni Infantino has “actively promoted exploitative ideas”.
In a joint statement with Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, and Italy’s Serie A, the English top flight says it is speaking out “because we understand how Fifa’s relentless expansionism affects everyone”.
The four leagues say the shake-up is needed to make world football’s governing body “transparent, objective, proportionate and inclusive” and claim that “our sport cannot grow globally if its foundations are undermined”.
It comes days after Infantino proposed an external review of how Fifa operates amid the ongoing crisis over his failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors, which sparked a global outcry.
Referencing “one of the biggest abuses of power in Fifa’s history”, the four leagues say that “while football’s stakeholders ultimately forced the withdrawal of the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme, the conditions that led to FFE remain”.
The statement added: “The Fifa president has now acknowledged the need for reform, but it is not enough for surface-level, process changes to be explored in the aftermath of FFE – fundamental governance reform is essential to restore clear constitutional boundaries within Fifa, including confidence that individual disciplinary matters remain demonstrably insulated from political interference.”
“Fifa’s governance problem goes far beyond the role of one individual,” the leagues added.
“The wider question is whether Fifa’s president should simultaneously wield such regulatory, commercial and political power without effective checks and balances, including the agreement of affected stakeholders… governance that concentrates unchecked regulatory, commercial and political power in a single office, while relegating affected stakeholders to mere advisory status, is not fit for purpose.”
UEFA president speaks for the first time since FIFA said it would review its decision-making, says trust still broken.
Published On 23 Sep 202623 Sep 2026
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says trust in world football has not been restored following the collapse of FIFA’s controversial private investment plan.
The remarks, made in a video address to the Portugal Football Summit on Wednesday, were Ceferin’s first public comments since FIFA president Gianni Infantino offered a review of the governing body’s decision-making.
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Ceferin said unity, transparency and governance that served the wider game were essential to maintaining trust in football. “Yet not everyone places the game above their own ambitions.”
“Trust in our sport rests on three pillars: unity, transparency, and governance that serves the many, not the few. In recent times, all three were disregarded by people who had sworn to protect them.
“The project that shattered the unity of world football may be abolished, but the trust it broke has not returned, and repairing it is our work now.”
Ceferin did not name Infantino or FIFA, but his comments were an apparent reference to the abandoned proposal to sell a 20 percent stake in FIFA’s commercial rights, including the World Cup, to private investors. The plan was dropped in July after fierce opposition from UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
“Football is not for sale,” Ceferin said. “That is the message UEFA has carried for years, and I’m certain this summit will carry it further.”
His intervention came two days after Infantino sought to address the fallout in a letter to the FIFA Council and the presidents of all 211 member associations.
He said he would ask the council whether it wanted to commission an independent external review of FIFA’s governance framework for major strategic initiatives and proposed consultations with confederations, member associations and other stakeholders on strengthening its decision-making processes.
He said any review could examine the roles of the president, bureau, council and congress and ways to improve transparency and accountability.
Infantino proposed an independent review of FIFA’s decision-making process amid criticism to his leadership.
Published On 22 Sep 202622 Sep 2026
A letter from FIFA President Gianni Infantino this week to all 211 members, offering to discuss reforms within world football’s governing body – amid an ongoing crisis over his failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup – is a mere ploy to get himself re-elected, Germany’s Football Association (DFB) President Bernd Neuendorf has said.
In Monday’s letter seen by the Reuters news agency, Infantino proposed an independent review of FIFA’s decision-making process, in a move that could help him regain support after the withdrawal of his controversial private investment plan.
Striking a conciliatory tone, he also said he would propose consultations with confederations, member associations and other stakeholders about strengthening FIFA’s decision-making.
Infantino faced a fierce backlash over his proposal to sell a 20 percent stake in FIFA’s commercial rights, including the World Cup, to private investors.
The plan was abandoned in July after strong opposition and boycott threats, with UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF calling for changes to FIFA’s leadership.
They said there had been no consultation with any continental confederation at any stage, with Infantino acting alone. UEFA has said a change in leadership was now necessary, with the European body having lost faith in the current president.
“I regard Gianni Infantino’s letter as a transparent ploy to secure his re-election next year,” said DFB President Neuendorf on Tuesday. “Fundamentally, FIFA now seems to have recognised that changes are essential.
“However, Gianni Infantino is definitely not the right person to lead a reform process. He has squandered all credibility.”
Neuendorf is also a member of the FIFA Council, the organisation’s main decision-making body.
Infantino said in the letter that member associations’ positions on proposals or governance matters would not affect their treatment by FIFA, whose development and solidarity programmes would continue under existing rules.
The Swiss is up for re-election in March next year, with his opponents struggling to find a candidate to challenge the president. Sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters this month that he still had enough votes to win, prompting opponents to focus on curbing his powers.
