{"id":713195,"date":"2026-06-03T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713195\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T19:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:21:09","slug":"campaign-to-deliver-biggest-complaint-fifa-has-ever-received-launches-before-world-cup-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713195\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign to deliver \u2018biggest complaint Fifa has ever received\u2019 launches before World Cup | World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

A quest to deliver the \u201cbiggest complaint Fifa has ever received\u201d is being launched by campaigners a week before the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With fans concerned<\/a> over safety and the cost of tickets at the tournament, and complaints ongoing against Fifa from human rights organisations and football competitions<\/a>, a class action-style complaint is calling for an investigation into the president, Gianni Infantino.<\/p>\n

The \u201cReboot Fifa\u201d campaign<\/a> starts on Thursday and is being led by the advocacy group FairSquare, which has pushed Fifa over its governance since before the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Led by an advisory board of football activists and writers, including the historian David Goldblatt and whistleblower Bonita Mersiades<\/a>, the campaign is \u201cencouraging people to add their name to \u2026 what we hope will be the largest single complaint Fifa will ever have received about the conduct of its senior officials\u201d.<\/p>\n

The complaint will be submitted to Fifa\u2019s ethics committee after the World Cup and will be an updated version of one sent to it at the end of last year, in which FairSquare claimed Infantino had on four occasions breached article 15 of the Fifa<\/a> code of ethics, which requires staff to \u201cremain politically neutral\u201d. The complaint followed Infantino\u2019s decision to attend a Summit for Peace held by Donald Trump and the subsequent award of the Fifa peace prize to the US president.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are rightly angered and frustrated by a range of issues, from exorbitant World Cup ticket prices to Fifa\u2019s offering of a peace prize to a man who then launched an illegal war on a World Cup participant,\u201d said FairSquare\u2019s director, Nick McGeehan. \u201cThis campaign is about harnessing that anger and redirecting it effectively to create the political pressure required to force meaningful change at Fifa.\u201d<\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump, left, and Fifa president Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office last year. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Among the reforms proposed by FairSquare are: increased auditing of the billions of dollars Fifa shares with its member organisations; a separation between Fifa\u2019s commercial and regulatory and governance functions; and improved transparency and public accountability, including expanded engagement with the media.<\/p>\n

FairSquare\u2019s original complaint received backing this week from Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian football federation and campaigner for Fifa reform. The NFF has written to Fifa\u2019s ethics committee in support of the complaint and, on the eve of the Norway squad\u2019s departure for the World Cup, Klaveness said of the letter: \u201cWe have sent it, and it is causing some political reactions. But it is sent, and that is checked off. We will follow up, push forward, request meetings, and build momentum on this as soon as the World Cup is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifa have been approached for comment. On launching the peace prize, Infantino said the award would \u201crecognise the enormous efforts of those individuals who unite people, bringing hope for future generations\u201d. He later defended the decision to award the prize to Trump, telling Sky News: \u201cObjectively, he deserves it. He was instrumental in resolving conflicts and saving thousands of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has further defended his personal relationship with Trump, saying: \u201cI think it is absolutely crucial for the success of a World Cup to have a close relationship with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A quest to deliver the \u201cbiggest complaint Fifa has ever received\u201d is being launched by campaigners a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-713195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}