Norway’s federation formally demanded that the FIFA president leave. Within hours, two of the sport’s biggest countries did the opposite.
“There is no going back for Gianni Infantino,” Norway federation president Lise Klaveness said on Thursday, calling for his resignation and warning that international football cooperation is “very much in trouble.”
Mexico’s federation moved first among the endorsements. The FMF said it would neither “recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework”, and joined Infantino’s call to “collectively continue developing football for the benefit of the 211 member associations”.
Argentina’s football association followed with a tribute to Infantino’s decade in charge. The AFA praised what it called a “transparent governance model” and said the way forward was to keep working under his leadership ahead of the FIFA Congress next March.
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Two continents close ranks
South America and Africa had already publicly aligned themselves with the Swiss earlier in the week.
CAF’s executive committee announced its “unanimous support” for the president. CONMEBOL was cooler, flagging concerns about “repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue”, but it ruled out any accelerated attempt to remove Infantino and insisted any move against him would need a vote of the full 211-member congress.
Confederations can lobby, but they do not deliver their members’ votes. Under FIFA’s rules each of the 211 associations casts its own ballot at congress, and Mexico has departed from CONCACAF’s position, which last weekend called for a comprehensive reckoning with Infantino’s presidency.
UEFA’s boycott holds
On 31 July all 55 UEFA members voted to boycott every FIFA competition until Infantino withdrew his plan to sell stakes in FIFA’s commercial arm to private investors.
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Infantino has since dropped the plan and apologised to the membership. That has not moved UEFA.
“UEFA’s associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non participation in FIFA competitions. First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again,” the confederation said on Thursday.
“These conditions have not been met. In addition, UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency. That position holds.”
Next test opens in Poland
The first fixture on the line is the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which opens in Poland next month. Every European team is signed up to the boycott, meaning FIFA could stage the tournament without any UEFA participant if the standoff runs on.
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LaLiga president Javier Tebas has also criticised FIFA’s governance. Infantino’s term runs to the FIFA Congress next March, and any challenge will be resolved there, one association at a time.
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