Mark Carney said on Wednesday he did not have confidence in Gianni Infantino, delivering the sharpest political rebuke of the FIFA president yet to come from a sitting World Cup host leader in the governance crisis spreading from Zurich.

The Canadian prime minister was speaking days after Infantino abandoned a plan to sell a 20 percent stake in a new $20 billion FIFA commercial unit that would have run the World Cup with private investors, including the Kushner family investment firm. That project collapsed on 31 July after UEFA’s 55 members threatened to boycott future World Cups and FIFA’s own chief operating officer publicly denounced it.

Carney’s central charge was procedural, not commercial.

“The idea that proper governance is not to disclose to your closest advisors, your chief operating officer, your fellow board members, something of consequence that you’re even considering let alone proposing, that should be fatal and you lose confidence in that individual,” he said.

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He was blunter still on Infantino’s suitability for the role.

“I do not believe he, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, is the right man to lead football forward on the world stage.”

From Parliament Hill to public rebuke

The intervention is a full reversal. In October 2025, when Infantino visited Ottawa and Montreal ahead of the tournament, Carney stood alongside him at Parliament Hill and at Canada’s match against Australia at Saputo Stadium, telling the FIFA president he had “made it a priority in men’s and women’s football to build friendship and unity through sports.” Carney was again seen at Infantino’s side during Canada’s home matches this summer.

Wednesday’s tone was the opposite. “This is not how you run any business, a small business, let alone something that is a global responsibility like football,” Carney said.

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FIFA COO called it ‘the project of one person’

The stake-sale plan lost its footing inside FIFA itself before Carney weighed in. Carlos Cordeiro, FIFA’s representative on the White House 2026 World Cup Task Force, resigned as a presidential adviser saying he could not stand by while FIFA considered selling a stake in the tournament.

FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour then went public, telling staff they had been deceived and calling the proposal “the project of one person” that “must not go ahead.” UEFA followed with a full-membership vote to boycott future FIFA tournaments if the sale went through.

When Infantino pulled the plug on 31 July, he said the project had “created divisions” contrary to its original objectives.

FIFA closes ranks

FIFA has publicly reaffirmed its support for its president, acknowledging in a statement that “mistakes were made” and that the process “should have been handled differently,” but backing Infantino to continue.

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Infantino is due to seek re-election at the FIFA Congress in Rabat next March.

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