Belgian Football Association refuses to support Fifa President Infantino

The Belgian Football Association announced on Monday that it would not support Gianni Infantino in his bid for another term as Fifa president. The reasons lie in a lack of transparency, inadequate association management and the incident at the World Cup involving Donald Trump and US striker Folarin Balogun.

Infantino is under increasing pressure as head of the world football association. However, FIFA said on Sunday that Infantino would run again in next year's elections. It would be his last term in office until 2031.

The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) now said in a statement that its decision not to support Infantino was due to the fact that FIFA “did not show transparency” in the “Fifa Forward Enterprise” (FFE) case and the Balogun affair.

As part of the FFE project, Infantino wanted to sell shares in the World Cup to private equity investors for $4.2 billion. After the plan became public at the end of July and was met with massive criticism both externally and internally, FIFA withdrew it on August 1st.

“This raises questions about transparency”

"In this matter, a number of important decisions and assessments were not adequately justified," said the Belgian association: "This raises questions about the transparency and association management of this process. We remain in close contact with UEFA and are working together to provide clear answers on the decision-making process and next steps."

Europe's football governing body is one of Infantino's harshest critics. UEFA said it had lost confidence in him and had even threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup. Several national associations, including England, have already withdrawn their support for Infantino's re-election. Now Belgium followed, which was directly affected by a FIFA decision at the World Cup.

In the Balogun case, the Belgian association criticized the fact that FIFA had not yet provided satisfactory explanations as to why the decision was made and how similar cases should be handled in the future.

Balogun case should go before the FIFA Council

After US President Donald Trump contacted Infantino, a one-game ban was suspended for Balogun's expulsion. This allowed the player to play against Belgium in the round of 16. The Europeans still won 4-1, and the Belgian players were apparently additionally motivated by one of the biggest scandals in tournament history.

“Two months after the events, we realize that our questions remain unanswered to this day,” said RBFA President Pascale Van Damme. "In view of the importance of transparency and clarity for everyone involved, we demand the necessary explanations. At the same time, we would like to examine where improvements to the existing processes can be made so that comparable cases can be handled clearly, uniformly and efficiently in the future."

The Belgian association has now called on Fifa to put the Balogun case on the agenda of the next Fifa Council meeting on October 15.