Timeline of Gianni Infantino's FIFA leadership implosion after World Cup sell

Seven days after the final ball was kicked at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Mr Infantino posted a lengthy, 15-picture slide show message on Instagram that celebrated the tournament's success.

In the statement, the FIFA president targeted people who "were so consumed by hate and criticism" in their opposition to some of how the tournament unfolded.

"To those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours, I want to say that while you are sitting behind, we at FIFA are on the front lines organising, working hard, and delivering the best show in the world,"

Mr Infantino said.

The message came after intense scrutiny of Mr Infantino, who has been repeatedly accused of attempting to align FIFA with the Trump administration, both before and during the World Cup.

In December 2025, he faced widespread international criticism for awarding the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to United States President Donald Trump.

Four weeks into the tournament, questions about his proximity to Mr Trump resurfaced when the US president claimed he had successfully lobbied FIFA's bosses to overturn a World Cup red card ban handed to American forward Folarin Balogun.

FIFA later reversed Balogun's ban after Mr Trump asked for a review of the decision.

The closeness was also evident at the World Cup final when Mr Trump was the sole political leader allowed onto a stage alongside Mr Infantino for the all-important moment when tournament winners Spain were handed the trophy, despite the event being co-hosted by Mexico and Canada.

Mr Infantino's latest scandal came after he announced a plan to form a commercial subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) that would grant private buyers control over competitions including the World Cup and Club World Cup.

The $US20 billion ($28.7 billion) proposal was first revealed by British newspaper The Times, and FIFA later described the FFE as "a new FIFA-owned and controlled subsidiary consolidating FIFA's commercial and event operations".

The governing body said it would retain control of the subsidiary and authority over football governance, competitions, match calendars and regulatory decisions.

Mr Infantino said FIFA's hope was that the FFE could generate enough commercial revenue to raise $US20 million in additional funding by 2030 for the further development of "infrastructure, coaching, national teams, competitions, grassroots football and the women's game" in member nations worldwide.

The effort was initially being bankrolled by Joshua Kushner — the brother of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law — via the Thrive Eternal investment firm.

UEFA was the first to condemn the plan, issuing a strongly-worded statement on the same day FIFA announced the idea.

"This crosses a line that football's governing institutions should never cross," UEFA said.

"The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially.

" None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA's to sell. "

As immediate criticism of the FFE plan grew, it was revealed Mr Infantino had written to each of FIFA's 211 member nations with a one-off offer aimed at enticing them into approving the deal.

The FIFA president set out a single $US20 million ($28.7m) funding boost for each member nation that chose to vote to approve the FFE bid.

He also gave those nations a deadline of mid-September to choose whether they would accept the offer.

UEFA issued an additional statement addressing the offer.

"UEFA knows there is significant and growing opposition to FIFA's scheme," the statement said.

"FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends. We can grow the game correctly. It's time to prioritise associations, clubs, leagues, players and fans."

In the first significant move by a continental football confederation against the FFE, UEFA announced each of its 55 member nations would refuse to participate in FIFA-commissioned events and tournaments until the proposal was removed.

"The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product," UEFA's statement said.

"It is both irresponsible and indefensible that a proposal of such significance for football was conceived in secret and brought to the brink of approval without any meaningful consultation with those entrusted with stewarding the game.

"This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA's duty as the custodian of world football.

"Some things are simply too important to sell. The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale."

CONCACAF released its own statement on the same day, confirming it had held a meeting with representatives from each of its 41 member nations and that the confederation had rejected the FFE proposal.

Football Australia Football only confirmed it had received notice from FIFA detailing the proposal.

"As this is the first time we have been made aware of the initiative, we are now working to understand the proposal in full," a statement said.

"We have requested further information from FIFA to properly assess the strategic, commercial, and governance implications of such a significant step."

The AFC became the third continental confederation to join the revolt against the FFE plan, issuing a statement that said it joined UEFA and CONCACAF "in expressing serious concerns" about the idea.

The Asian football organisation did not go as far as UEFA as to commit to boycotts of FIFA events, but demanded the global body "undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework".

"While the immediate debate centres on FFE, the AFC considers this issue extends far beyond a single proposal," the statement said.

"Rather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA's consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed."

On the same day, FIFA and Mr Infantino a statement that sought to address the increasing criticism.

"FFE has been proposed solely to ensure that all FIFA Member Associations have the opportunity to take meaningful ownership of the commercial opportunity of football in their respective countries," FIFA said.

" Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain. "

From within the organisation, FIFA's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour also attacked the bid, telling The Associated Press that he believed the body's staff were "deceived" by how the FFE idea was conceived.

"It is the project of one person," he said in a statement.

"Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions."

Mr Lamour's statement also followed the extraordinary resignation of Mr Infantino's senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro.

Mr Cordeiro claimed he had no involvement in planning the FFE, and described it as "a bad deal for football".

Four days after FIFA first confirmed the FFE plan, Mr Infantino announced it would not proceed.

"Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place," a statement said.

"Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support."

The uproar from UEFA and CONCACAF continued to arrive

While UEFA welcomed the FFE proposal's withdrawal, it also said those responsible should be held to account and that Mr Infantino was failing in his leadership of FIFA.

"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," it said.

"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."

CONCACAF echoed those calls.

"A proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident. It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first," it said in a statement.

"This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour.

" A comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative. "

After its initial threat to boycott FIFA-led events and tournaments, UEFA's action against the FFE proposal went further.

UEFA's lawyers informed FIFA that the European body was "actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints".

A letter named 18 FIFA executives who UEFA said should retain data, documents and electronic messages as potential evidence.

They included Mr Infantino, Zurich-based chief finance officer Thomas Peyer and Arsène Wenger, the coaching great who is FIFA's head of global football development.

"UEFA puts you on formal notice that any destruction, deletion, alteration, concealment, or loss of relevant materials following receipt of this notice — or following any earlier date on which you were, or reasonably should have been, aware that proceedings were anticipated — may constitute spoliation of evidence," the letter said.

Legal proceedings were "reasonably anticipated," UEFA's lawyer Andrew J Levander wrote, citing the belief of football stakeholders that the plan was "fundamentally incompatible with the proper governance of football".

At the same time, the Swedish football federation confirmed UEFA was actively looking "to come up with an alternative candidate" as FIFA president.

In England, the Football Association confirmed it would withdraw its support for Mr Infantino as FIFA president in the wake of the FFE scandal.

That decision followed the football governing bodies of both Wales and Serbia, which also issued statements against Mr Infantino.

Amid what had become a multinational furore, the FIFA executive called an emergency meeting to be held in Rabat, Morocco.

At that meeting, FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström and members of the organisation's board confirmed they would continue to support Mr Infantino as president.

In its statement after the meeting, the executive team said "mistakes" surrounding the FFE proposal "were acknowledged" and "that the process should have been handled differently".

The governing body also said that a separate letter to the FIFA Council and its 211 member nations included an apology for the scandal, although it did not explicitly say the apology had come from Mr Infantino.

"A review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting," the statement said.

"There are always lessons to be learned, and FIFA will continue to improve its processes in light of this experience."

The move also came on the same day Portuguese football legend Luis Figo issued his own scathing statement about Mr Infantino and demanded he resign.

"Infantino has debased the office that he promised to elevate. He has lied, deceived and tried to feather his own nest at the expense of the game he is supposed to serve," the statement posted to X said.

" It is too late to save his dignity but it is not too late to save football. He should go. Now. "

A week after it first threatened to boycott FIFA-commissioned events and tournaments, UEFA doubled down on the announcement.

European football's governing body said that despite FIFA apologising, it had lost confidence in Mr Infantino and the conditions it had set to withdraw its boycott threat had not been met.

"UEFA's associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non participation in FIFA competitions," it said in a statement.

"First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.

"These conditions have not been met. In addition, UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino's presidency. That position holds."

The statement joined the increasingly mounting pressure placed on Mr Infantino, after global football players union FIFPRO also accused him of "a profound abuse of presidential power".

"No institution can restore confidence in a presidency that has itself dismantled the conditions upon which confidence depends," the FIFPRO statement read.

While most of the opposition to Mr Infantino's leadership appeared to originate in Europe, Asia and North America, on other continents the message was different.

In South America, the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol — known as CONMEBOL — released a statement promising to reject any attempt to unseat Mr Infantino outside of FIFA's usual election processes.

"[FIFA's] future can only be built on the basis of respect for the institutions, governance and democratic procedures that represent the 211 FIFA Member Associations," it said.

The show of support was backed by the Argentine Football Association, the body that governs the World Cup runners-up, and also by the Confederation of African Football.

In a break with the standing of CONCACAF, joint world cup host Mexico threw its support behind Mr Infantino.

"The FMF will neither recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework, and it joins the call made … by President Infantino to collectively continue developing football for the benefit of the 211 member associations," it said in a statement.

"The FMF supports President Infantino's leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening."

The Mexican position was also at odds with the Norwegian Football Federation, whose President Lise Klaveness said Mr Infantino no longer had the confidence of the football community and that the sport needed to move beyond "Game of Thrones" power struggles.

"He does not have the institutional trust required to govern FIFA stably in the times we are in," Ms Klaveness said,

" There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. "

In continuing their assault against Mr Infantino, UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF released a joint open letter that took aim at FIFA for not conceding the FFE proposal was "inherently wrong".

"When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned," the letter said.

"There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve."

The confederations also demanded an independent review of the FFE scandal take place over an internal, FIFA-commissioned investigation.

"FIFA's own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco. No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to participate," the letter said.

"Only the management committee, composed of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.

" It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him … There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness. "

Gianni Infantino's future as the head of FIFA will ultimately be decided by each of the organisation's 211 member nations.

Unless an emergency election — known as an Extraordinary Congress — is called, his leadership will be determined at the next Presidential Election at the FIFA Congress to be held in Morrocco on March 17, next year.

An Extraordinary Congress can only be called by the 37-member FIFA Council, or if 20 per cent of the 211 nations — 43 members — issue a written request that that one be held.

If that does not happen, presidential candidates expecting to run against Mr Infantino in March will need to be named by November 18.

According to FIFA's rules, each member nation has a single vote — regardless of size, population or influence and success in football.

FIFA presidents are allowed to remain as leader for three terms consecutively, but no longer.

Mr Infantino has already been re-elected twice consecutively after he ran unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

He also led for three years before that after he replaced Sepp Blatter amid FIFA's notorious corruption scandal, but those years were not considered as a complete presidential term.

Candidates who could run against Mr Infantino would need to be endorsed by at least five member nations.

If there is just a single opponent against Mr Infantino, the eventual victor would need to be elected with 50 per cent of the 211 votes.

If there are more than two candidates in the race, run-off votes are held to reduce the number to a final duo.

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