Uefa Demands Overhaul of Fifa Leadership Amid Infantino Controversy
Uefa has fired its clearest warning shot yet at Gianni Infantino, bluntly declaring that Fifa’s current style of leadership cannot go on and demanding a “thorough and fundamental” overhaul of the organisation’s governance.
In a blistering statement laced with references to “secret schemes”, “shabby backroom deals” and “faceless individuals”, Europe’s governing body made plain it wants change at the top of world football. The message landed only hours after Fifa abruptly scrapped Infantino’s controversial plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors.
Uefa stopped short of explicitly calling for Infantino to resign. But the intent was unmistakable. Senior European figures are understood to be determined that the Fifa president should not be allowed to ride out what they regard as a crisis of his own making – a stance shared by many of the game’s most powerful national associations across the globe.
Behind the scenes, leading European officials have already begun sounding out potential challengers to stand against Infantino at next year’s Fifa presidential election. That process, insiders say, will intensify over the coming days.
Ceferin tightens the screw
Under Aleksander Ceferin, Uefa has moved as a bloc. The Slovenian lawyer, who last week persuaded all 55 European member associations to back a World Cup boycott if the plan went ahead, is now driving the push for structural change in Zurich.
“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” Uefa’s statement read. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.
“It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, Uefa will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again. That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table. The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa’s confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family.”
The language was as direct as anything Uefa has issued in the Infantino era. It did not just attack the aborted deal. It went after the man.
Infantino’s promises thrown back at him
Infantino, first elected in 2016 and widely expected until recently to coast to a third full term at the Fifa Congress in Rabat next March, now faces the very real prospect of an opponent. He remains determined to stay, and has already banked more than 200 letters of support from member associations endorsing his re‑election. Those letters, though, are not binding. They can be withdrawn, and the deadline for other candidates to declare is 18 November.
Uefa chose to use Infantino’s own campaign rhetoric from a decade ago as a weapon.
“When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of Fifa’s Member Associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said, ‘Of course we have to be transparent. I have been this in the last 15 years of my life in Uefa. You will have to play a part every day in the life of Fifa,’ before telling the assembled stakeholders, ‘The money of Fifa is your money. It’s not the money of the Fifa president. It’s your money. You are the national associations, and the money of Fifa has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.’”
Uefa’s verdict on that record was brutal. “On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent. And with reserves standing at over $5bn, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.”
The “shabby” deal in question centred on a proposal to create a new commercial vehicle, Fifa Forward Enterprise, and sell 20% of it to private investors. Infantino had pitched it as a way to turbo‑charge payments to national associations through the existing Fifa Forward programme.
Money, power and a system under fire
Under Fifa Forward, all 211 member associations currently receive the same central payment over each four‑year cycle. Infantino argued that by selling a minority stake in the new company, Fifa could increase those payments from $8m in the next cycle to $20m, and also hand each association a one‑off $20m signing bonus if they backed the scheme by 19 September.
For many, that was the red line. The model of funnelling millions to some of the smallest and least developed football nations has long been criticised as a form of political patronage that helps entrench the president’s power. The proposed $20m “bonus” only sharpened those accusations.
Uefa’s response was to demand not just the scrapping of the deal – which Fifa has now done – but a root-and-branch rethink of how the money is shared.
“Uefa will begin work immediately with partners and stakeholders all over the world and right across the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing Fifa Forward programme,” the statement continued. “We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in Fifa’s bank account to deliver the kick start that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of Fifa. But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it.
“This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.”
Who could take on Infantino?
Names are already circulating in the corridors of power.
The Paris Saint‑Germain president Nasser Al‑Khelaifi is viewed by many in Europe as a natural contender, given his influence and his role as chairman of the powerful European Football Clubs lobby group. Yet those close to him say he is reluctant to stand, wary of the political storm that would follow and mindful of his existing commitments.
Two other figures are being talked about. Victor Montagliani, the Canadian president of the North and Central American confederation Concacaf, commands significant support in his region and has worked closely with Infantino but could emerge as a consensus candidate if the mood shifts. Salman al‑Khalifa, the Asian Football Confederation president who lost narrowly to Infantino in the 2016 Fifa election, is another potential challenger with unfinished business on the world stage.
For now, no one has formally stepped forward. But the clock is ticking, and Uefa’s intervention has changed the atmosphere. What looked like a procession to Rabat suddenly resembles a race.
The abandoned deal may have been buried overnight. The question now is whether it ends up taking Infantino’s presidency with it.
