{"id":847183,"date":"2026-08-07T20:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847183\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:44:09","slug":"gianni-infantino-allies-rally-as-norway-fa-demands-fifa-presidents-resignation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847183\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino allies rally, as Norway FA demands FIFA president\u2019s resignation"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZURICH – Football appeared to be headed for a prolonged standoff on Aug 7 as allies of FIFA president Gianni Infantino rallied behind him while Norway demanded his resignation after several European associations withdrew their support.<\/p>\n

Confederations and national associations continued to choose sides a week after Infantino abandoned his proposal to raise some US$4.2 billion (S$5.3 billion)<\/a> by selling off a stake in the commercial rights of the World Cup and other tournaments.<\/p>\n

Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness said Infantino no longer had the confidence of the football community, saying the sport needed to move beyond \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d power struggles and focus on real governance reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not have the institutional trust required to govern FIFA stably in the times we are in. There is no going back for Gianni Infantino,\u201d said Klaveness, a qualified lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe international football cooperation is very much in trouble, and we must have a reason to get together now, and we want to ask the FIFA president to resign now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, European soccer\u2019s governing organisation UEFA, which has 55 members, stood firm in its threat to boycott all events<\/a> organised by the global body.<\/p>\n

However, the football associations of Mexico and Argentina were the latest to throw their weight behind the embattled world soccer chief, following the Confederation of African Football\u2019s (CAF) unanimous backing of Infantino\u2019s leadership<\/a> on Aug 6.<\/p>\n

South America\u2019s CONMEBOL, meanwhile, expressed concerns over the \u201crepeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mexico breaks ranks<\/p>\n

The Mexican Football Federation (FMF), co-hosts of the recently concluded World Cup, broke ranks with its own regional confederation by supporting Infantino after CONCACAF had earlier called for a \u201ccomprehensive reckoning\u201d with his presidency.<\/p>\n

CONCACAF, which runs football in North and Central America as well as the Caribbean, has been among the key critics of FIFA alongside UEFA, which on Aug 6 said that its key conditions for a return to FIFA competitions had not been met.<\/p>\n

UEFA said it remained committed to boycotting the World Cup until it received assurances that \u201csuch attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.\u201d<\/p>\n

England defender Lucy Bronze said European players would support a boycott of FIFA competitions if necessary \u201cfor the good of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

UEFA has not said whether its teams would skip FIFA\u2019s next event \u2013 the women\u2019s under-20 World Cup in Poland in September. The French Football Federation told the BBC: \u201cFor now, France will be participating in the FIFA U20 Women\u2019s World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuters has asked the FFF for comment.<\/p>\n

Asia\u2019s confederation (AFC) said it \u201cstood in solidarity\u201d with UEFA and CONCACAF, although a few of its 47 members \u2013 like Indonesia, the Philippines and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar \u2013 have come out in support of Infantino.<\/p>\n

In CONMEBOL\u2019s statement on Aug 6, it said it rejected any attempt to oust Infantino that did not involve a vote of all 211 members and Mexico\u2019s federation echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FMF will neither recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework, and it joins the call made… by president Infantino to collectively continue developing football for the benefit of the 211 member associations,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FMF supports president Infantino\u2019s leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ecuadorean Football Federation president Francisco Egas Lareategui also lent his support to Infantino, saying the country\u2019s football had experienced \u201cexponential development\u201d thanks in large part to FIFA\u2019s financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trust that you and those currently leading world football will continue working for the benefit of our sport, adhering to the rules with transparency and conviction,\u201d he wrote in a letter to the FIFA chief.<\/p>\n

Following a meeting in Rabat this week, FIFA apologised to its members<\/a> for mistakes in the proposal and said it would review the process after the plan blindsided national associations and regional confederations.<\/p>\n

Argentina FA acknowledges FIFA errors<\/p>\n

The fallout from the proposal has cast a shadow over Infantino\u2019s bid for reelection for a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March, which had looked like a foregone conclusion two months ago.<\/p>\n

No clear candidate to stand against Infantino has yet emerged, however, and the Swiss administrator still enjoys considerable support, including from 2022 world champions Argentina.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s football association (AFA) backed FIFA\u2019s work over the past decade, praising its focus on global development and transparent governance.<\/p>\n

While the AFA acknowledged that the proposal generated far more uncertainties than certainties and that errors had been made, it said that the way forward was to continue working under FIFA\u2019s leadership ahead of 2027\u2019s Congress.<\/p>\n

Paraguay\u2019s federation (APF) also published a letter of support addressed to Infantino, writing that it \u201creaffirms its commitment to continue working alongside FIFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Croatian Football Federation was among the individual national associations to withdraw support for Infantino, following similar moves by England and Albania.<\/p>\n

On Aug 6, players\u2019 union FIFPRO said Infantino\u2019s proposal was not just a governance failure but a \u201cprofound abuse of presidential power\u201d.<\/p>\n

FIFA has said that all actions taken over the commercial rights proposal complied with its regulations and stressed that mistakes related to process and communication rather than breaches of governance rules. REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZURICH – Football appeared to be headed for a prolonged standoff on Aug 7 as allies of FIFA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-847183","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\/847183","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=847183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}