14 October – Tomorrow will be the most important meeting the FIFA Council has held since its formation in 2016 under the then new presidency of Gianni Infantino. At the core of his agenda, although not an item on the agenda, is the future of the president himself.
Make no mistake, Infantino clings to his leadership and lifestyle with an almost admirable desperation. Since July 28 and the announcement of the $4.3 billion sale plan of FIFA Football Enterprise, each day has led to more attacks on his own reputation and that of FIFA.
New scandals, declarations of loss of confidence from football players and furious calls for his resignation have come at him and FIFA in volume and venom.
As UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin so aptly pointed out, the emperor has no clothes. Infantino’s invisible thread suit fools no one but himself.
Incredibly, the Council meeting will be the first time Infantino has appeared before a formal meeting of FIFA, and the people he theoretically reports to, since the InfantinoGate crisis began 80 days ago.
Since July 31, when Infantino withdrew his FFE/World Cup sales plans, he has been conspicuous by his absence. He has made no comment on FIFA’s crisis, faced questions before his members or his FIFA governing council, offered no explanation for his unilateral actions, nor acknowledged that he violated any of FIFA’s statutes and protocols.
Instead, he has selectively broken cover, surrounded by team security from his FIFA member associations and core supporters, to press … for himself.
Monday’s revelation that $1.7 million of the salary he receives from FIFA has not been declared in FIFA’s accounts reflects the self-serving duplicity of Infantino and his leadership group, and only underlines the statements of distrust that have flowed in from all parts of the world over the past 80 days.
But he still believes he has a core of support that will vote for him if he makes it to the FIFA elections next March. These are presidents of federations (not necessarily the federations themselves) that he believes he has bought and paid for, and in whom the belief has been installed that a vote against would be made at his peril. Grant money and threats of ethics violations are the preferred political weapons in Infantino’s game.
Frankly, this iron fist of democracy operated by Infantino is an open secret.
What changed a shrug and attitude from “it is the way it is” to “this has gone too far and now needs to change” was the FFE. It was the nuclear backlash that in most forms of civil society and certainly all corporations would force immediate regime change.
The FIFA Council tomorrow has the biggest responsibility it will ever face: to try to chain Infantino’s uncontrolled, one-sided and dangerous decision-making and ensure that this kind of control and manipulation of the world game can never happen again. Infantino’s leadership has proven time and time again that he is the greatest threat facing the global and interconnected soccer ecosystem. It is a pattern that must be broken and, like all institutional cancers that have grown out of control, it must be ruthlessly removed.
Below are some of the questions the 36 FIFA Council members have to ask the 37th councilor and president, Gianni Infantino.
- Your leadership is under global criticism, with multiple calls for your resignation from all football stakeholders and the member associations that first elected you in 2015. Why haven’t you resigned?
- Why did he not call an emergency meeting of the FIFA Council to answer the questions of the elected members of the Council?
- Do you agree that there must be an immediate and independent review of your leadership and the governance and activities of FIFA and that you cannot participate in that review, either as a participant or in the selection of the independent review committee?
- Will you accept the outcome of the review committee’s findings and act on its recommendations as directed by FIFA members, even if the review found that you committed serious misconduct and should be removed from office?
- Will you accept a suspension of all functions while this independent review takes place?
- Will you dissolve FIFA’s current ethics and disciplinary functions and replace them with a truly independent judiciary that is not hand-picked by you or your associates?
- Will you suspend the FIFA presidential election while the independent review takes place?
- Will you stop using FIFA money and executives to lobby for your own re-election and abide by FIFA’s statutes and electoral code in this regard? Do you accept that you have already broken this code and should be prevented from applying?
- Will you support the proposal to immediately release $10 million from FIFA’s reserves to member associations?
- Why didn’t you declare your full FIFA salary in the last set of accounts?
About the proposal to sell our commercial future
- Why would you sell our commercial rights, in perpetuity, to a private equity (FFE) business linked to the President of the United States, Donald Trump?
- Do you agree that these trading rights are not and never were your selling rights?
- Do you accept that this was an attempt to defraud the holders of these rights and as such potentially a criminal act?
- Why was there no discussion and transparency at any time in the formulation of your sales plan which was developed by foreigners from the football family for the benefit of foreigners from the football family?
- Do you think you could bribe us with promises of money, in exchange for selling our family’s financial future? Why did you put a gun to our heads with a deadline to sign up? Do you have so little respect for us? Do you really think we fall for this fuss?
- Do you agree that FIFA has no need to raise additional funding beyond its reserves, as outlined in the UEFA and Concacaf presidents’ proposal?
- Do you agree that, from a management point of view, you have a responsibility and a duty to inform us and that you must respect the decisions made by the FIFA Bureau and the FIFA Council?
- Do you accept that your actions break all the basic principles of sports governance?
- Do you accept that plans formulated in secret without discussion with your members will bring the global game into global disrepute?
- Do you accept that you have irrevocably lost the confidence of football players?
- Do you accept that our nations are equal partners with equal rights? Do you agree to be reported to partners? Do you accept that you are responsible to us, here and now?
- Can you tell us exactly the detail of the side deal that you had with the private equity backers? Do you agree that we have a right to know?
On political interference, basic governance and the protection of the game on the field of play
- Why did you give Donald Trump a FIFA Peace Prize? Why should FIFA give a peace prize?
- Why did you allow Trump to interfere with the competitive integrity of our game for Balogun’s red card which broke all our conventions of match rules?
- Why did you break all the established conventions of our game at the 2026 World Cup with hydration breaks, rule changes, extended half-time breaks? Don’t you believe that our rules are sacred, that they are ultimately the strongest glue that binds us together, wherever and whoever is in the world? Is this guardianship of our global game not important to you?
- Why have you allowed global politics and politicians to influence our game?
- Do you think that sending your staff to intimidate and threaten member associations into supporting your leadership is the standard of sports governance that football should strive for?
- Do you think promoting a culture of fear is the way to manage your stakeholders and staff? Do you think that creating a culture of fear is good, open and fair government?
- You were elected with the mandate to institute a reform process that had been set in motion by a reform commission. Do you agree that you have failed miserably and never had any intention of doing so, the clearest example being your dismissal of FIFA’s independent ethics committee and its replacement by your own appointees? Do you accept that you rigged the ethical process for your own agenda?
- You are paid a third more annually than any member nation can currently receive in grant money. Do you think it is suitable?
The first item on the agenda, after the roll call, is the president’s speech. No doubt Infantino will apologize to the FFE, pretend there was never an attempt to defraud members and, if he’s smart, promise unequivocally and early in his speech his full support and immediate action to implement the proposal to give all member associations a one-off $10 million from FIFA’s reserves.
However, just because he accepts a proposal that everyone wants doesn’t let him off the hook. Ten years is enough, it’s time for FIFA to return to football and its core mission of putting the game first, not its titular leader.
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