European soccer leaders meet in Berlin to craft plan to unseat Gianni Infantino
European soccer leaders gathered in Berlin on Thursday, October 8, 2026, as UEFA called its 55 member federations to a previously scheduled summit aimed at shaping a strategy to try to oust Gianni Infantino as FIFA president. The meeting comes amid ongoing European efforts to find a challenger ahead of the next FIFA election.
The push followed Infantino's World Cup private investment plan, which failed within days of being revealed in July and intensified long-standing mistrust of his increasingly executive presidency at FIFA. UEFA's longer term plans include preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for possible financial mismanagement in the World Cup sell-off deal, and has asked courts in the United States to authorize discovery of evidence. “Somewhere along the way things went too far with FIFA, and we're looking to put things back where they belong,” UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said last month.
Europe's 55 federations make up more than a quarter of FIFA's 211 member federations who can vote in the election on March 18 in Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press research suggests Infantino already has about 90 votes pledged, albeit before any potential opponent is known. Infantino has support promised from Azerbaijan and Latvia, and he met with soccer and government officials in Prague on Wednesday.
Aleksander Ceferin in August was joined by his fellow FIFA vice presidents in denouncing Infantino for deception and breach of trust over the World Cup sell-off plan. Those vice presidents were Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Victor Montagliani of Canada. Despite that denunciation, none of the three currently appear set to be on the FIFA ballot.
Ceferin has long dismissed any talk of himself running and said last month at UEFA meetings in Greece there were “many, many” potential candidates. Montagliani is expected to focus on his own reelection at CONCACAF in February. Sheikh Salman has been Infantino's FIFA election opponent before and had been a favorite in a five-man campaign that Infantino eventually won in February 2016.
Speculation has often pointed to Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaïfi, a Qatari member of UEFA's executive committee and a close ally of Ceferin. Al-Khelaïfi ruled himself out last week at a meeting of the influential European Football Clubs group he leads. UEFA's biennial business meeting in Berlin provides a forum for members to debate policy, strategy and international soccer competitions, and this summit is expected to air ideas about the kind of reformed and more transparent FIFA that European soccer wants to see and an election candidate to commit to that model.
First, UEFA and its allies worldwide need to agree on at least one candidate to challenge Infantino by a Nov. 18 deadline to enter the race; the decisive moment will be the March 18 FIFA election in Rabat, Morocco, when 211 member federations can vote.
