African officials sound out Fifa general secretary Mattias Grafström on possible challenge to Gianni Infantino

Senior figures in African football phoned Fifa general secretary Mattias Grafström last week to sound out whether he would stand against Gianni Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election, the Guardian reported on 22 August 2026.

Fifa’s general secretary, appointed permanent in May 2024 after serving in an interim role, has worked closely with the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and several African federations over the past two years. Caf says its executive committee (exco) “unanimously reconfirmed” support for Infantino, yet multiple sources told the Guardian that as many as 15 African federations could be prepared to turn their backs on the 56-year-old when he seeks re-election. Africa comprises 54 Fifa members and any rival would need 106 of the 211 Fifa members to vote against the incumbent.

Two presidents of African federations separately contacted Grafström by phone last week; he was reportedly surprised to be approached and non-committal at this stage. “They think that Matthias can group all the continents together and then go forward,” a source who is a member of the exco told the Guardian. “I don’t know what his position is right now but if he can bring all these people together then he would get some support. Matthias is a very open-minded guy and he always listens to what we think.” Grafström did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.

Grafström initially distanced himself from the contested Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal after the plan to sell off 20% of the World Cup’s commercial rights was abandoned, telling staff in a memo three days later that “individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go”. Twenty-four hours after that memo he signed a letter of “full support” for Infantino and informed employees that chief operating officer Kevin Lamour – who heavily criticised the FFE proposal – had been sacked.

Sources describe growing discontent in parts of Africa following what they say was Fifa’s decision at the end of last year to stage the Africa Cup of Nations every four years rather than every two. At Caf’s most recent exco meeting on 7 August, multiple sources told the Guardian that only four of the 21 exco members publicly declared their support for Infantino, among them Caf president Patrice Motsepe and vice-president Fouzi Lekjaa. “The rest remained silent,” said one who attended the meeting.

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, which has voiced its opposition to Infantino in alliance with Uefa and Concacaf, is also thought to retain support inside Africa after losing to Infantino in the 2015 elections. “If Salman is coming for sure he’s going to be elected,” the same exco source added. “If Europe will give him support, he will get the support from Asia, he will get support from Concacaf. And he will get some support from Africa. For sure, 10 to 15 people will vote for Salman.”

Potential challengers have been told they must present alternatives to FFE-style promises to win backing from African federations; FFE had been expected to deliver around $20m a year to each association. “If Uefa or anyone else has something better, they should propose it – if anyone has anything better than Infantino then people will vote for them,” said the exco member. “If someone will come and say, ‘OK we are going to have an agreement with Uefa that means we support poor countries so we can build good infrastructures there’ then they will support him.” Infantino is due to seek re-election next year.