UEFA has spent August raising the pressure on Gianni Infantino. It has the muscle to force a hearing but, on the numbers as they stand today, not the votes to force him out.
Under Article 25.4 of the FIFA Statutes, 20% of member associations, 43 of 211, are enough to convene an extraordinary congress within three months. UEFA’s 55 associations clear that threshold on their own. Removing a sitting president is another matter: it needs a simple majority of the global membership, 106 votes, on a one-nation-one-vote ballot in which each of FIFA’s 211 members counts the same as any other.
That is where the arithmetic gets uncomfortable for Europe. CONMEBOL and FIFA have both spent the last week drawing a hard line at any process outside the statutes.
CONMEBOL closes the shortcut
South America’s confederation issued a pointed statement on 6 August. CONMEBOL expressed concern about “repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue”, but also made clear it would “not support any action or procedure” that departs from FIFA’s established governance mechanisms.
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CONMEBOL has criticised the fallout from the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, yet declined to back any move to force Infantino out before the scheduled presidential election in Rabat in March 2027.
Two days later FIFA itself pushed back. In a statement dated 8 August, the governing body said it “will not support, facilitate or tolerate any process concerning the election of the FIFA President that is inconsistent with FIFA’s Statutes, democratic procedures and established governance framework”.
The same statement framed the campaign against Infantino as “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its President”.
UEFA: ‘these conditions have not been met’
Europe is not backing off. UEFA reiterated on 6 August that its boycott of FIFA competitions remains active, with a statement saying the associations had “very clear” conditions: the FFE plan had to be fully withdrawn, and binding assurances given that no similar attempt would be made in future.
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“These conditions have not been met,” UEFA added, restating that Europe had “lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency” and that the “position holds”.
The boycott, approved unanimously by all 55 UEFA members on 30 July, threatens the U-20 Women’s World Cup starting on 5 September and, in its most extreme form, the next senior men’s and women’s World Cups.
Joint letter stops short of demanding resignation
On 10 August UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation put their names to a joint open letter to the “football family”, accusing FIFA of a “fundamental breach of trust” and demanding an independent third-party investigation into the FFE plan.
The letter closed with the line that the game “belongs to no individual”, but stopped short of an explicit call for Infantino’s resignation.
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The three confederations together account for a large share of the 211-member congress. Confederations do not control how their members vote, though: each association casts its own ballot, and CONMEBOL’s public stance combined with FIFA’s own defence of the president leaves the 106-vote arithmetic anything but settled.
Trump backs Infantino
The picture became more complicated on 11 August. US President Donald Trump publicly threw his weight behind the FIFA president as calls for his resignation grew, an intervention that adds political heat but does not change a single vote inside the FIFA Congress.
The presidential election is scheduled for March 2027 in Rabat. Infantino, so far, is still running.
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