{"id":748546,"date":"2026-08-24T20:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748546\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T20:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:54:13","slug":"enough-is-enough-players-pile-pressure-on-under-fire-gianni-infantino-to-resign-gianni-infantino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748546\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Enough is enough\u2019: players pile pressure on under-fire Gianni Infantino to resign | Gianni Infantino"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of influential current and former footballers have added to the pressure on Gianni Infantino<\/a> by calling for change at the top of Fifa, saying \u201cenough is enough\u201d in a statement shared widely across social media.<\/p>\n

The intervention is particularly significant given some of those behind its circulation have undertaken ambassadorial activities for Fifa<\/a> as part of its \u201cFifa Legends\u201d programme. Among them is the former Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mika\u00ebl Silvestre, who also sits on the governing body\u2019s 16-member players\u2019 voice panel designed to assist with anti-racism initiatives.<\/p>\n

Others to have shared the statement include the England defender Lucy Bronze, the former England keeper David James and the France 1998 World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit. More signatories are expected to follow in a concerted reaction to Infantino\u2019s ill-fated attempt to sell stakes in the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share the exact same concerns as the millions of fans around the world,\u201d part of the statement read. \u201cLike them, we have watched the game we love drift away from its core values under Fifa\u2019s current leadership. For too long, we\u2019ve seen major decisions taken without players being consulted or considered, and without any regard for the fans who sustain the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange is necessary. Power has blurred the current leadership\u2019s ability to distinguish between its own interests and what is best for football. Recent events have made silence impossible. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group called for efforts to \u201creshape the future of our sport\u201d, adding: \u201cThere are good people within Fifa who want to rebuild trust, but a new era requires a structured change: a real, direct say for players and fans in how football is run. Those who step on to the pitch and those who sit in the stands deserve a genuine voice to help reshape football\u2019s future together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino has resisted calls to resign and spent Saturday at a youth tournament in the Dominican Republic<\/a>, attempting to smooth relations with some of the smaller Caribbean member associations on whose support his fate may hinge.<\/p>\n

One former player with a different perspective on Infantino is the former Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea striker Samuel Eto\u2019o, who is president of the Cameroonian football federation. In an interview with CNN, Eto\u2019o said Infantino had not committed any missteps and called for the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme to be put back on the table if Infantino is re-elected next March. He said the money from FFE would \u201creset the balance of power\u201d in football and ensure African countries avoided losing top players to other national teams.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think that [Infantino] has done anything wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this has happened because there\u2019s an election coming out, that\u2019s all there is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see all of my colleagues, all of the presidents, re-reading the project. After president Infantino is re-elected, we will have the strength to ask for this project to be put back on the table for discussion. I remain convinced that, if there is a democratic vote, this project will be adopted because it\u2019s good for the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of influential current and former footballers have added to the pressure on Gianni Infantino by calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-748546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}