Wales first to withdraw support for Infantino, with England joining ahead of FIFA presidential election
The Football Association of Wales became the first national association on Monday, August 3, 2026, to publicly withdraw its support for Gianni Infantino's candidacy for a term as FIFA president from 2027 to 2031. Shortly after the Welsh decision, the English Football Association followed the same course, giving the dissatisfaction with the leadership of world football's governing body additional political weight. Before the outbreak of the latest crisis, both associations had been prepared to support Infantino's candidacy, but they changed their position following the controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise project. According to reports by Reuters and the British news agency PA, the English FA will inform FIFA that its previously submitted letter of support is no longer valid. The move by Wales and England does not determine the outcome of the election for now, but it shows that the support Infantino until recently regarded as broad and stable has begun to erode.
The Football Association of Wales said in a statement that recent events had exposed serious shortcomings in good governance, procedures, leadership, values, stakeholder relations, communication and judgment. The FAW concluded that Infantino had lost the association's confidence to continue leading world football and said it could not accept decisions in which the interests of the game were not placed first. The statement was unusually direct for a national association that had supported the current FIFA president only a few weeks earlier. The English FA had already aligned itself with UEFA's joint position on July 30, stating that it opposed the plan for private investment in the commercial rights to FIFA competitions. The subsequent withdrawal of support for Infantino's candidacy shows that opposition to the project is no longer limited to a single business decision, but is turning into an open question of confidence in the organization's president.
The project that triggered the deepest crisis of Infantino's presidency
At the center of the dispute was the proposal to establish a company called FIFA Forward Enterprise, abbreviated as FFE. According to documents and explanations published by FIFA on July 28 and 31, the new company would remain owned and controlled by FIFA and would bring together the commercial activities and operational organization of major competitions. This would include the sale of media and sponsorship rights, licensing, ticketing and some operations connected with staging tournaments, including the World Cup. FIFA claimed that sporting decisions, competition rules and the governance of the organization would not pass into the hands of private investors. Opponents, however, warned that even a minority ownership stake held by investors would, in the long term, create pressure for decisions on the calendar, formats and commercial strategy to be made according to the expected financial return.
According to Reuters and the Associated Press, the plan envisaged raising up to 4.2 billion US dollars by selling approximately 20 percent of the stake in the new business entity, which was valued at around 20 billion dollars. A New York investment company linked to Joshua Kushner was mentioned among the potential investors. At the same time, FIFA announced a significant increase in development allocations for its 211 member associations. In its official clarification, the organization stated that each national association would receive 20 million dollars in development funding between 2027 and 2030, while an additional one-off program worth another 20 million dollars per association would be voluntary and financed through external investment. Critics regarded such a structure as an attempt to win over the associations with large payments before they had been able to independently assess all the legal and financial consequences.
The greatest problem for the project's opponents was not only the amount of the planned investment, but also the way in which the proposal had been prepared and presented. UEFA said the project had been developed without meaningful consultation with the confederations, national associations, leagues, clubs, players and supporters' organizations. The English FA also confirmed that it had not been involved in preparing the proposal. FIFA responded by claiming that inaccurate media reports had disrupted the planned consultation process and that the final decision would in any case have required the support of the member associations and the FIFA Council. Nevertheless, the speed with which the project was presented, triggered global opposition and was then withdrawn further intensified suspicions that the procedure had not been sufficiently prepared.
UEFA threatened a boycott and then lost confidence in FIFA's leadership
The opposition was initially expressed most strongly by UEFA together with its 55 national associations. In a joint statement on July 30, the European confederation unanimously rejected the proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors. UEFA said that the World Cup must not be treated as an investment product and announced that European national teams would not participate in FIFA competitions for as long as the proposal remained active and until firm guarantees were provided that a similar model would not be revived. Such a threat was extremely serious because the absence of European national teams would endanger the sporting and commercial foundations of FIFA's tournaments. Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation joined the pressure, also demanding a more transparent process, accountability and the timely involvement of member associations.
On July 31, Infantino announced that the proposal would not proceed. In an official statement, he said that the purpose of the project had been to strengthen national associations, particularly in countries where development assistance was needed most, but that the divisions that had emerged had become contrary to the original objective. FIFA thereby abandoned FFE only a few days after the proposal became public. The withdrawal removed the immediate threat of a boycott, but it did not stop the political consequences. On August 1, UEFA welcomed the abandonment of the project while saying that the current FIFA leadership no longer had its confidence and that no possibility should be excluded when considering future action.
The European confederation announced a thorough analysis of how FFE had been created, who had prepared it and how it had almost reached the decision-making stage without an earlier public debate. UEFA also wants to consider an alternative model for distributing money through the existing FIFA Forward program, without involving private owners in the structure that manages the commercial operations of the biggest competitions. The conflict reveals two different visions for the development of world football. FIFA argues that it needs a new business model to increase revenues and reduce disparities between associations, while UEFA and the associations joining it believe that development must be financed from existing revenues and reserves, with stricter control by the members. For that reason, the withdrawal of one project has not resolved the fundamental question of who determines the commercial direction of international football.
Potential legal proceedings further increase the pressure
The crisis has also acquired a legal dimension. The Associated Press reported on August 3 that UEFA's lawyers had sent FIFA a notice requiring the preservation of documents, electronic mail and other data connected with the FFE project. Such a notice does not mean that a lawsuit has already been filed, but it is commonly issued when judicial, arbitration or regulatory proceedings are being seriously considered. According to the AP, UEFA said it was considering legal action over issues relating to the preparation of the project, governance procedures and the possible incompatibility of the proposed model with FIFA's role as a nonprofit organization responsible for governing world football. At the time the information was published, FIFA had not responded in detail to all the legal claims.
Public disagreements within the organization itself dealt an additional blow to the leadership. According to the Associated Press report, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour described the project as an initiative that had been developed without the proper involvement of key figures in the administration. The media also reported the departure of adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former president of the United States Soccer Federation, who expressed concerns about the financial need for the project and the lack of transparency. These developments reinforced the impression that the dispute was taking place not only between FIFA and UEFA, but also within the world organization's own governance system. It is particularly problematic for Infantino that the debate is no longer focused solely on the substance of the project, but also on the decision-making process and the president's relationship with FIFA's collective bodies.
Nevertheless, it is not yet possible to conclude that Infantino's candidacy is politically lost. FIFA has 211 member associations, and each has one vote at the Congress, regardless of the size of the country, its population or the economic strength of its domestic football. The European associations form an important bloc, but they cannot elect or remove the president on their own without support from Africa, Asia, South America, North and Central America, the Caribbean and Oceania. During his term, Infantino has built strong relationships with numerous small and medium-sized associations, primarily through increased development funding. That is precisely why it will be crucial whether the Welsh and English move remains limited to the European circle or encourages a larger number of associations from other confederations to withdraw their previously expressed support.
The 2027 election is becoming a real contest rather than a formality
At the FIFA Congress in Vancouver on April 30, 2026, Infantino officially announced that he would stand for another term. The Swiss official of Italian origin has led the organization since February 2016, when, following the major corruption crisis, he took over after a period marked by the departure of Sepp Blatter. He was re-elected without an opponent in 2019 and 2023, and before the FFE dispute erupted it had been expected that the 2027 election could also pass without serious competition. According to the Associated Press, the deadline for submitting candidacies expires on November 18, 2026, while the presidential election is expected to be held four months later at the FIFA Congress in Morocco. The withdrawal of support by Wales and England therefore comes early enough to create room for the emergence of an alternative candidate.
Dissatisfaction among European associations alone is not enough for a potential challenger. A candidacy requires formal nominations, an organized campaign and the ability to connect different interests within the six continental confederations. Many associations regard FIFA's development programs as essential for building pitches, coach education, women's football, youth teams and administrative infrastructure. Any attempt to change the leadership will therefore have to offer a credible answer to the question of how to maintain or increase financial assistance without privatizing part of the commercial operations. UEFA has already announced that it wants to propose a new method for distributing FIFA's existing funds, showing that the political struggle will be fought not only over individuals, but also over the funding model.
England and Wales each have one vote, but the symbolism of their decisions goes beyond the arithmetic of the Congress. Wales was the first to publicly break a previously given pledge, demonstrating that letters of support are not irreversible. The English FA governs one of the most commercially influential football systems in the world, and its move sends a strong message to other associations that are still assessing the consequences of the dispute. If a larger number of UEFA members join the withdrawal of support, Infantino could face organized electoral opposition for the first time since taking office. If the resistance also spreads beyond Europe, the election in March 2027 could become the most uncertain contest for FIFA's leadership in more than a decade.
For now, it has been confirmed that FFE will not continue in the proposed form, that UEFA is preparing a broader review of the events and that Wales and England have withdrawn their political support for the current president. It has not been officially confirmed how many other national associations will follow their example or whether a challenger with sufficiently broad international support will emerge by November. Likewise, the legal proceedings being considered by UEFA have not yet been initiated, and their possible scope remains unclear. The coming months will therefore show whether the failed project was a short-lived crisis or the beginning of a shift in the balance of power in world football. What is already clear is that Infantino's path to a term lasting until 2031 no longer appears to be a foregone formality.
Sources:
- Reuters / Al Jazeera – report on Wales' withdrawal of support and the decision of the English Football Association, as well as the basic financial elements of the FFE project (link)
- FIFA – official statement by Gianni Infantino on the withdrawal of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal (link)
- FIFA – official clarifications concerning the structure of FFE, control over the company and the planned development funding for member associations (link)
- UEFA – joint statement by UEFA and 55 national associations rejecting private investment and warning of a possible boycott of FIFA competitions (link)
- UEFA – reaction to the withdrawal of the project and assessment that the current FIFA leadership has lost the confidence of the European confederation (link)
- The Football Association – official statement by the English FA opposing the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal (link)
- Associated Press – information on UEFA's possible legal action, the obligation to preserve documents and the schedule for the 2027 presidential election (link)
- FIFA – announcement of Gianni Infantino's candidacy for a new term at the 2027 FIFA Congress (link)