Debbie Hewitt, chair of England’s Football Association and a FIFA vice-president, has delivered the sharpest public challenge yet to Gianni Infantino’s presidency.
“If he doesn’t answer those questions, he’s not fit to be FIFA president,” she said.
Hewitt was speaking after UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis sent an eight-page letter to FIFA listing 42 questions and demanding written answers and supporting documents by November 2.
The deadline falls 16 days before the November 18 cut-off for candidate nominations in the 2027 FIFA presidential election, which Infantino intends to contest.
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Trump, Marc Anthony and the president’s pay
Theodoridis’s letter asks about Infantino’s personal remuneration, including undisclosed additional salary payments made to him by the US World Cup organising entity, and about financial payments to singer Marc Anthony.
It also demands records on the Folarin Balogun disciplinary case, in which Donald Trump contacted Infantino and FIFA subsequently suspended the US striker’s automatic one-match ban for a one-year probationary period.
Trump family business ties feature prominently: a $4 million, seven-year Trump Tower office lease in New York, cryptocurrency discussions involving Trump associates, and a $75 million Palestine investment linked to Trump’s Board of Peace. The letter also asks about the FIFA Peace Prize, awarded to Trump at the December 2025 World Cup draw.
Theodoridis wants an account of the FIFA Forward Enterprise, the private investment plan to sell off a share of World Cup commercial rights that Infantino launched and then dropped in July amid European pushback. The questions include why Joshua Kushner was lined up as the lead investor and whether the FIFA Council was consulted.
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The eight-page letter also probes the operational independence of FIFA’s judicial, electoral and ethics committees. One passage asks directly whether the electoral committee chair should step aside for the duration of the vote.
“In view of the importance of ensuring the independence and perceived impartiality of the electoral process, would FIFA consider Mr Chiomento’s recusal and replacement by his deputy for the duration of the presidential election?” Theodoridis wrote.
He added that FIFA’s existing answers “do not answer how the relevant decisions were taken or why the FIFA Council was not involved at the appropriate stage.”
“These questions require answers now. They cannot be deferred until the next meeting of the FIFA Council,” his letter states.
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Sixteen days before nominations close
The March 18, 2027 vote will be held in Rabat, Morocco. The winner needs a simple majority of FIFA’s 211 member associations.
UEFA has publicly backed a contested election, but confederations do not control how their members vote; each association casts its own ballot. The letter is nevertheless the most detailed public catalogue yet of the complaints Infantino’s critics intend to put on the record before the nomination deadline.
Hewitt made clear she expects substantive answers, not a referral to a future governance review.
“Members need to understand what happened before they can review the governance arrangements,” she told the FIFA Council.
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Infantino has apologised for proposing to sell World Cup participation rights but has not released documents on the Forward Enterprise plan or explained its origins. The next scheduled FIFA Council meeting falls after the November 2 deadline.
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