FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom’s reply landed shortly before midnight on Sunday, a few hours before UEFA’s deadline. It did not contain the substantive responses UEFA had asked for. Instead, Grafstrom offered Council members supervised access, at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, to documents on the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal to privatise part of the World Cup commercial operation.

Grafstrom argued that the European federation’s demand “contains significantly more questions than the FIFA administration could reasonably have anticipated” and that FIFA was working on a response to share with all Council members in due course, according to Leadership.

As of midday on Monday 2 November, UEFA was still waiting on substantive answers to the 42 questions it submitted on 19 October.

42 questions, 12 topics, one presidency

UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis wrote to Grafstrom on 19 October with a list that runs across eight pages and groups the 42 queries under 12 headings. Ten of them concern alleged conflicts of interest linked to Infantino’s dealings with the Trump administration, per Sky Sports’ summary of the letter.

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“These questions require answers now. They cannot be deferred until the next meeting of the FIFA Council,” Theodoridis wrote to Grafstrom, according to Sky Sports News.

The topics include the FFE proposal, which would have sold minority stakes in FIFA’s commercial operations to Thrive Capital at a reported $20bn valuation; the FIFA Peace Prize awarded to Donald Trump, created without Council approval; an undisclosed £1.3m payment made to Infantino in 2024 on top of his £4m salary that did not appear in FIFA’s annual report; and the 27-minute interval at the 2026 World Cup final, staged without consultation with IFAB, the body that writes the laws of the game.

Also on the list is the disciplinary case against United States forward Folarin Balogun, where Trump has publicly acknowledged calling Infantino to request a review, prompting UEFA questions about what was actually asked and whether political influence was brought to bear on FIFA’s judicial bodies.

The tax bill UEFA did not know about

The pressure sharpened on the day the deadline expired. Reporting published on 2 November disclosed that FIFA had quietly paid about $4m of Infantino’s United States income tax bill after his relocation from Zurich to Miami ahead of the World Cup, and that the arrangement never appeared in FIFA’s public remuneration disclosures.

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The deal was pushed through a three-person FIFA committee in May 2024 by Swiss accountant Bruno Chiomento, an Infantino ally, who argued the president should receive the same tax equalisation offered to around a dozen staff who moved to the United States to work on the tournament. Elected officials were not meant to be eligible for that mechanism, Inside World Football reports.

Earlier, in response to UEFA’s wider letter, a FIFA spokesperson had told reporters that “the FIFA Governance Regulations state that Council meetings and their associated documentation are confidential”.

Sixteen days to 18 November

The deadline for candidates to confirm they will stand against Infantino at the March 2027 FIFA presidential election is 18 November, 16 days away from the day FIFA’s reply arrived. UEFA has publicly committed to backing an alternative candidate.

The next FIFA Council meeting, where Council members would face Infantino in person, is not scheduled until 16 December, almost a month after the candidacy deadline closes.

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Grafstrom’s offer of supervised, confidential document access leaves the mechanism UEFA complained about untouched. The 42 questions have been received and acknowledged. The written answers UEFA asked for have not arrived.

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