Luis Figo does not sit on a federation board and does not run a national association.
That is what gave his verdict its weight when it landed in a Daily Mail column on Wednesday 5 August, as the crisis around FIFA president Gianni Infantino entered its second week.
“Today I join others from across our game and call for Gianni Infantino to resign as FIFA president,” Figo wrote, describing what had emerged over the previous ten days as “the lowest, most deceitful and cravenly self-interested behaviour I have ever witnessed.”
“Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game he is supposed to serve.”
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“It is too late to save his dignity but it is not too late to save football. He should go. Now.”
The plan that unravelled in ten days
FIFA Forward Enterprise was a proposed commercial subsidiary valued at around $20 billion that would have absorbed the broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and hospitality rights around the men’s and women’s World Cups. Private investors would have taken a 20 per cent stake for roughly $4.2 billion.
The confederations turned within days. On 30 July, UEFA’s 55 member associations voted unanimously to boycott every FIFA competition, including the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2030 men’s World Cup, until FFE was scrapped. CONCACAF’s 41 members rejected the plan a day later, citing “the lack of due process” and an “artificially short deadline”.
The Asian Football Confederation issued a statement of solidarity with the two. Infantino shelved the proposal soon after.
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Figo joins a wider revolt
La Liga president Javier Tebas had already demanded Infantino’s departure, and senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned last week. Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development, publicly distanced himself from the failed proposal.
18 March 2027 in Rabat
FIFA’s 77th Congress and its next presidential election are scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco.
Infantino had appeared certain to run unopposed, but Wales, Sweden and Serbia have since withdrawn their endorsements of his re-election, and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani has been floated as the most concrete potential challenger, though he has not declared.
The confederations that have publicly opposed him do not control how their member associations vote. Each of FIFA’s 211 members casts its own ballot at Congress, and Infantino has not publicly responded to Figo.
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