September 7: FIFA president Gianni Infantino will stand for re-election, the world governing body has officially confirmed.
On Saturday, the opening day of the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland, Infantino had refused to answer reporters about his future after weeks of intense pressure to step down following his abandoned plans to sell a stake in the World Cup, but FIFA confirmed yesterday that its president wants to stand in the organization’s 2027 congressional elections in Morocco. The deadline for presidential candidates to run is November 18.
“The FIFA president announced in April that he will stand for re-election in 2027,” a FIFA statement read. “Of course, nothing has changed. Infantino will run for re-election.”
UEFA, with AFC and Concacaf aligned to varying degrees, has launched an unprecedented attack on Infantino, who sought to brazenly flog the World Cup.
The European body has requested discovery proceedings in US courts, targeting FIFA documents. Those statements were accompanied by warnings of possible criminal charges in Switzerland, but FIFA hit back, calling UEFA’s actions a “smear campaign against her and her leadership”.
In 2016, Infantino came to power after FIFAGate nearly brought the world governing body to its knees. Formerly UEFA’s general secretary, Infantino was part of a reform committee that outlined how the rules of good governance should shape FIFA. Instead, Infantino has seemed to dismantle the internal balances and centralized power around him.
He tried to sell FIFA competitions to Softbank, fast-tracked the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, introduced the controversial 32-team Club World Cup, awarded the FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump and allegedly facilitated the US president’s request to review Folarin Balogun’s World Cup suspension, although FIFA maintains that the decision to retain Balo’s presidency was taken legitimately.
The FIFA Statutes and term limits have not stopped Infantino either. Article 33 of the FIFA Statutes states that no FIFA President may hold office for more than three terms, consecutive or not. Infantino was first elected FIFA president in February 2016, then re-elected by acclamation in both 2019 and 2023.
With FIFA now confirming what he told Congress in April this year, Infantino will stand for what would be a de facto fourth term, but FIFA insists his first spell in office between 2016 and 2019 does not count.
Contacted for comment, FIFA referred to a statement from December 2022 which reads: “The FIFA Council also unanimously confirmed its agreement with the opinion of the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee that the period between 2016 and 2019 does not count as the mandate of the current FIFA President, who is therefore nearing the end of his first term.”
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at (email protected)