September 23 is the date the opposition inside FIFA is now counting toward. That is the cutoff to place any motion on the agenda of an Extraordinary Congress, and it is the only realistic route to a no-confidence vote before the presidential election on March 18, 2027 in Rabat.

Under Article 25(4) of the FIFA Statutes, 20 percent of the 211 member associations have to file a written request to force an Extraordinary Congress. That is 43 national FAs. UEFA has 55 member associations of its own, so on paper the trigger is available to Europe’s federations without help from other continents if they all sign.

The second number is the harder one. Removing a sitting FIFA president requires a simple majority of the entire membership: 106 votes. Confederations do not control how their members vote; each of FIFA’s 211 associations casts its own ballot. UEFA’s 55 seats, plus the AFC’s 46 and CONCACAF’s 35, would in theory reach 136. In practice, individual federations from those same confederations are still lined up behind Infantino, and CAF’s 54 members have publicly backed his 2027 re-election bid.

What the confederations have and have not done

UEFA voted last month to boycott FIFA competitions and said its members had “lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency”. CONCACAF and the AFC rejected the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan separately but did not sign up to the boycott. CAF, whose 54 associations make it FIFA’s biggest single confederation, is publicly backing Infantino. CONMEBOL’s ten members are on the president’s side. OFC’s eleven have not committed.

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That leaves the opposition well over the threshold to force a vote and short of the threshold to win it. Gabriele Marcotti walked the arithmetic through in an ESPN FAQ this month, and the conclusion held up wherever the numbers were drawn: triggering a vote is procedural, winning one is political.

The three deadlines that box Infantino in

• September 23, 2026: 43 associations must file a formal request to force a no-confidence motion onto the Extraordinary Congress agenda.

• November 18, 2026: deadline for any challenger to submit a candidacy for the March election.

• March 18, 2027: FIFA presidential election at the 77th Congress in Rabat, Morocco.

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Even without a no-confidence vote, the middle date is the one that reshapes the picture. A credible challenger declared by mid-November would strip away the assumption that Infantino is unopposed and turn the March vote into a real contest. The August 12 joint letter from UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC set the register, describing the president’s conduct as a case where “an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority”.

The boycott has not been lifted

Infantino withdrew the FFE proposal in early August and apologised for “mistakes” after a crisis meeting in Morocco on August 5, but UEFA said the boycott stays on the table. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told reporters on August 3 that Infantino was “not the right man to lead football forward on the world stage”.

No challenger has yet declared for March. The September 23 clock is now the one to watch.

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