The FA sent its letter to FIFA on Thursday, joining Wales, Sweden and Serbia in a revolt that has spread across UEFA in a matter of days.
All 55 UEFA member associations are expected to withdraw their endorsement letters before the FIFA presidential vote in March 2027.
UEFA turned the screw the same day with a statement doubling down on the boycott it voted unanimously to back on 30 July. Its conditions for stepping back, UEFA said, had not been met.
Apology “changes nothing”
The statement was pointed. UEFA said that Infantino’s plan to sell off major FIFA competitions “had to be withdrawn, and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again. These conditions have not been met.”
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It went further on Infantino’s crisis meeting in Rabat on Wednesday, where senior FIFA directors publicly rallied behind him.
“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing,” UEFA said.
The first practical test of the boycott is next month’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which begins in Poland on 5 September.
The FA joins Wales, Sweden and Serbia
The Football Association of Wales broke ranks first on Monday.
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“The recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football,” the FAW said.
Sweden and Serbia pulled their letters the same day. The English FA followed on Thursday, according to reports of the letter it sent to FIFA headquarters. Sweden’s federation has said it will now work with other UEFA members on a counter-candidate.
The $4.2 billion plan that broke the relationship
At the centre of the row is FIFA Forward Enterprise, the scheme Infantino unveiled on 28 July to sell a roughly 20 per cent stake in a new commercial vehicle for FIFA competitions, aiming to raise up to $4.2 billion from private investors.
Each of FIFA’s 211 member associations was offered $40 million to sign off on the plan.
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UEFA voted to boycott men’s and women’s FIFA tournaments two days later. FIFA formally abandoned the proposal on 1 August.
The retreat has not been enough for UEFA, and its lawyers have since served FIFA with a document preservation letter as it weighs legal action, arbitration and regulatory complaints.
The countdown to the March vote
A FIFA presidential candidate needs 106 of the 211 members to win a majority at the Rabat Congress next March. That maths puts Infantino’s fate in the hands of individual national associations, not the confederations.
UEFA has publicly criticised the president, but confederations do not control how their member associations vote; each of FIFA’s 211 members casts its own ballot, and members often break with their confederation’s line.
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CAF, CONMEBOL, Mexico and Argentina publicly backed Infantino as the crisis broke, while Jordan has said it will not vote for his re-election and CONCACAF has stopped short of declaring lost confidence.
The English FA’s letter is the most symbolically loaded defection so far, and its arrival on the same day as UEFA’s fresh warning has removed Infantino’s clearest route back to a quiet re-election.
