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Wales, Serbia, and Sweden have withdrawn support for Gianni Infantino’s bid for another term as FIFA president.
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The coordinated move comes days after FIFA abandoned its controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a proposed $4.2 billion commercial venture.
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The growing rebellion represents the biggest political challenge of Infantino’s presidency, with UEFA declaring that confidence in FIFA’s current leadership has been severely damaged ahead of next year’s election.
August 4, (THEWILL) — Gianni Infantino’s bid for another term as FIFA president suffered a major setback on Monday after Wales, Serbia, and Sweden withdrew their support for his re-election.
This has deepened the crisis triggered by FIFA’s abandoned plan to sell stakes in its commercial operations to private investors.
The three national football associations cited failures in governance, transparency, and leadership, saying recent developments within world football’s governing body had eroded their confidence in Infantino ahead of the FIFA presidential election scheduled for March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco.
The Football Association of Wales became the first federation to publicly announce its decision, saying it could no longer support a leadership that had failed to protect the best interests of the game.
“Failing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept,” the Welsh FA said in a statement confirming it would not back Infantino’s candidacy for another four-year term.
Hours later, the Football Association of Serbia also announced it was withdrawing its support despite having endorsed Infantino earlier this year.
“We would like to remind you that we provided Mr Infantino with our support in writing on 25 May this year, but after carefully considering the events that have seriously damaged the standing and reputation of both FIFA and its president in the past period, this is the only logical and rational course of action,” the Serbian federation said.
The Swedish Football Association followed with a similar decision after holding an extraordinary board meeting, saying it had concluded that confidence in Infantino’s leadership no longer existed.
The federation said its decision followed a lengthy assessment of developments within FIFA, pointing to recurring shortcomings in management, transparency, and governance.
The coordinated withdrawals come just days after FIFA dramatically abandoned its proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a commercial subsidiary that would have managed the organisation’s business operations, including the FIFA World Cup and other major competitions.
Under the proposal, outside investors would have been allowed to acquire minority, non-controlling stakes in the new company.
FIFA estimated the venture could have generated as much as $4.2 billion, based on an initial valuation of $20 billion, with the proceeds intended to increase funding for its 211 member associations.
However, the proposal sparked fierce opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF, and several national football associations, who criticised the lack of consultation and raised concerns about private investment in the governance of the global game.
Facing mounting resistance, FIFA announced on Saturday that it was abandoning the project.
Infantino acknowledged that the proposal had become divisive, saying the organisation had decided not to proceed because it was no longer serving its intended purpose.
“Our purpose has always been and will always be to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed,” he said.
UEFA welcomed FIFA’s decision to shelve the project but launched a fresh attack on the governing body’s leadership, accusing it of pursuing major reforms through secretive processes.
“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. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account,” UEFA said.
The European governing body added that the current FIFA leadership had lost not only UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the global football community.
With three national associations now publicly withdrawing their backing and criticism from Europe’s football leadership continuing to intensify, Infantino faces the most serious political challenge of his decade-long presidency as the countdown to next year’s FIFA elections begins.
