November 4: Former FIFA head of government Miguel Maduro has said Gianni Infantino is ineligible to run again for the FIFA presidency.
In a press conference organized by the NGO FairSquare, Maduro said there is a “more appropriate” and “obvious” way to bring down Infantino.
He explained: “Article 33, paragraph 2 of the FIFA statutes is very clear when it says that no one can serve as president for more than three terms. Gianni Infantino has been elected three times. He has been FIFA president for three terms. So there is no way to reconcile another term of Gianni Infantino with this rule.”
In 2022, FIFA said the FIFA Council decided to discount Infantino’s first three-year term as president, leaving him open to run again in 2027. Infantino has confirmed he will seek a fourth term at next year’s FIFA Congress in Rabat, Morocco, resisting calls to resign over his World Cup investor plans.
In 2016, Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer, became president of FIFA’s governing committee, but Infantino dismissed him less than 12 months later after Maduro refused to approve the appointment of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko to the FIFA Council. Today, he supports FairSquare’s Reboot campaign, which argues that Infantino is ineligible for election.
“The first issue is that this is not a matter for the FIFA Council to decide. It is the same as if a president of a state interpreted the constitution himself to be able to run again, instead of the supreme or constitutional court,” Maduro said.
“It must be the FIFA review committee that decides on the eligibility of anyone who wants to run for the presidency of FIFA. The FIFA Council has no competence in this matter. The text speaks of three mandates. There is no distinction between full or incomplete mandates, four-year mandates or terms that can be less than four years. The rule is intended to limit the concentration of powers, so any interpretation that expands with the power be very strong.”
After lobbying the Review Committee, challengers to Infantino’s eligibility could go to CAS. Maduro, however, believes no one is challenging Infantino on term limits because of a “climate of fear.”
“We have seen that anyone who acts on their own and challenges and shows a dissenting voice, or even shows that they have an opinion of their own, is excluded, left out, loses influence in the FIFA power structure.”
Two years ago, European football associations approved amendments to UEFA’s statutes that will allow the confederation’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, to stand again. In Asia, the AFC and its president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, abolished term limits.
Maduro warned that if there is no reform, whoever succeeds the incumbent could just be a new version of Infantino.
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