Uefa, AFC and Concacaf demand Infantino resign and probe Fifa scheme

UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf have called for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to step down in an open letter published on 10 August 2026, accusing him of placing himself above the collective authority of the football family. The three confederations said the conduct surrounding Infantino’s privately backed Football Forward Enterprise scheme represented “trust broken through deception” and demanded leadership “that serves football, not seeks to command it.”

The letter escalates a dispute that began after details emerged of the Football Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, which the confederations say was unilaterally launched and should not have been proposed in that form. UEFA, AFC and Concacaf said they have begun preliminary discussions about organising alternative competitions after repeated UEFA threats to boycott FIFA events. They warned next month’s under-20 women’s World Cup could take place without European teams and said they are exploring other options.

The open letter was signed by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani. “Leadership in football is not a possession,” the letter states. “It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it. 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 confederations criticised FIFA’s handling of the crisis, pointing to a meeting of a small number of senior staff in Rabat followed by an apology from Infantino that, they said, did not express remorse for the scheme itself. “It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” the letter says. “It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. 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 three confederations called for an independent review conducted by a body outside football and reiterated concerns over governance and accountability. FIFA had previously committed to presenting a full report to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting, and the letter addressed fears about financial support by stating it is “[not] about any member association losing the support it has earned, despite the fearmongering directed at our leadership to suggest otherwise.” The letter concludes: “There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness … Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now, with leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.”

Efforts to coalesce around potential successors to Infantino have intensified since the FFE revelations, with Concacaf president Victor Montagliani reported among the leading contenders. The confederations say they will consider all options provided they conform to FIFA’s statutes and governance framework, and any prospective candidate must announce their bid by 18 November.

Responses within the global game are mixed: few associations outside Europe have publicly criticised Infantino and only a small minority have recalled letters of support for his re-election, while both the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and South America’s Conmebol have recently expressed backing for him. Several larger member associations have written to Infantino requesting a meeting to seek explanations about the FFE scheme but, according to the confederations, they have received no response and he has not contacted federations personally.

Any declared candidates for the FIFA presidency must submit their bids by 18 November, and the confederations say they will continue to pursue options that comply with FIFA’s governance rules while awaiting the full report FIFA has pledged to present to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting.