FIFA Presidency Under Fire as FairSquare Challenges Infantino’s Eligibility for 2027 Election

A fresh governance challenge has been mounted against FIFA president Gianni Infantino, with advocacy group FairSquare asking FIFA to rule him ineligible to seek another term in next year’s presidential election, arguing that doing so would breach the organisation’s term-limit rules.

FairSquare has submitted a letter to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee, calling for a formal ruling on Infantino’s eligibility ahead of the election scheduled for March 2027 in Morocco.

The organisation argues that Infantino has already exhausted the maximum number of presidential terms permitted under FIFA’s statutes. The dispute centres on how his first period in office, beginning in 2016, should be counted.

Infantino was first elected FIFA president in February 2016 after the resignation of Sepp Blatter. He was subsequently re-elected in 2019 and again in 2023. However, FIFA accepted an interpretation that his initial period in office did not count towards the statutory term limit because he completed the remainder of Blatter’s interrupted mandate before beginning his first full four-year term.

FairSquare strongly contests that interpretation, arguing that FIFA’s statutes do not provide such an exemption and that allowing the 2016–19 period to be excluded effectively undermines the purpose of the organisation’s presidential term limits.

The organisation has also questioned the transparency surrounding FIFA’s earlier decision to accept the interpretation, arguing that the reasoning behind it was not publicly disclosed.

The latest challenge comes at an increasingly contentious moment for Infantino’s leadership. His presidency has faced mounting criticism following disputes over FIFA governance, transparency and the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise, a plan involving private investment in World Cup-related commercial assets that was subsequently abandoned. UEFA and CONCACAF have publicly expressed serious concerns about his leadership.

The Norwegian Football Federation has also called for Infantino’s resignation, citing what it described as a loss of trust in FIFA’s leadership and demanding greater transparency and accountability.

FairSquare’s latest intervention is not the organisation’s first challenge involving Infantino. It previously filed a complaint with FIFA’s Ethics Committee over alleged breaches of political-neutrality rules linked to his relationship with US President Donald Trump. A separate complaint to the International Olympic Committee was rejected on jurisdictional grounds.

The term-limit complaint now places FIFA’s own governance mechanisms at the centre of the controversy.

For Infantino, the immediate issue is whether FIFA’s governance structures will uphold the interpretation that allows him to contest the 2027 election — or revisit the decision and determine that his initial period as president must count towards the statutory limit.

FairSquare is calling for the latter, arguing that Infantino should not be permitted to seek another term if doing so would violate FIFA’s own rules.