Criticism of FIFA President Gianni Infantino: Possible successor and term of office debate

Montagliani, president of the continental association responsible for North and Central America and the Caribbean, is said to have corresponding ambitions, according to “The Athletic”. What speaks in his favor is that, as a non-European, he would also be able to give consent outside of the Concacaf and UEFA circles.

Infantino has been criticized for weeks because he wanted to sell part of the World Cup rights to investors. There was resistance to this and UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA competitions. The world association rejected the plans, but the boycott threat was renewed by UEFA.

Niersbach, who led the German Football Association from 2012 to 2015, is amazed at Infantino's transformation. Back then, in the role of UEFA Secretary General, he experienced him as “competent, highly professional, reliable”. »As a fully qualified lawyer, Gianni held the business together very well and put himself entirely at the service of UEFA.«

The suspicion is that this office of FIFA President has done something to him, says Niersbach: "He has, at least apparently, lost all the qualities that distinguished him during his time at UEFA: stability and down-to-earthness."

FairSquare calls for Infantino's exclusion from the election

In March 2027, Infantino wants to be re-elected president of the world association at the Fifa Congress. The organization FairSquare wrote to FIFA on Monday and called for the Swiss to be excluded from the election. The demand is justified by the fact that Infantino is already in his “third and final” term of office and re-election would violate the limitation enshrined in the statutes.

Infantino took office as Sepp Blatter's successor in 2016 following Fifa's corruption scandals. In December 2022, the world association announced that the period from 2016 to 2019 did not fall under Infantino's term limit.

The organization FairSquare, which has already filed a complaint with the Fifa Ethics Commission because of Infantino's closeness to US President Donald Trump, criticizes the fact that the world association has never communicated a "legal basis" for this. The approach to this issue is another example of Infantino “running FIFA more like a dictatorship than a democracy.”

The failed investor plans could cost Gianni Infantino his office. You can read here which two options his opponents have and who his possible successors are.