UEFA, Concacaf and AFC jointly urge FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign
UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation on Monday called for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to step down in an open letter. The letter was signed by the president and general secretary of each confederation.
The three organisations said they were disappointed in Infantino’s performance as a “custodian of the game” after a string of recent controversies. They pointed to last month’s failed proposal for the FIFA Forward Enterprise, a plan to sell part of the World Cup’s commercial rights to private investors to raise billions, and to a crisis meeting held last week in Morocco with select members of FIFA’s management team.
“This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the FIFA Management Committee — not the full Committee — were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment,” the confederations wrote.
“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. “These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.”
Infantino, 56, has been FIFA president since 2016 and previously served as UEFA Secretary General from 2009-16. He is seeking another four-year term and is up for re-election in 2027.
U.S. Soccer issued the first public response from a national association on Monday, posting on X that “U.S. Soccer, Canada Soccer, CFU (Caribbean Football Union) and UNCAF (Central American Football Union) stand together, along with our colleagues around the world, in calling for meaningful change that strengthens FIFA’s governance, transparency and accountability.” The statement noted that the United States and Canada, two of the 2026 World Cup host nations, backed the confederations’ letter.
The stance from U.S. Soccer and Canada contrasts with support for Infantino from the Argentine Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation. FIFA responded on Saturday to the criticism by denouncing what it called “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” the organisation and its president, and the U.S. Soccer social media post included a link to the joint confederations’ letter.
Infantino faces formal re-election in 2027 when he is seeking another four-year mandate.
