Human rights organization FairSquare has filed a formal letter with FIFA's Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee demanding that Gianni Infantino be ruled ineligible for the 2026 presidential election — and the legal argument at the centre of it is harder to dismiss than FIFA would like.
The core issue: FIFA's own statutes cap the presidency at three terms, with no distinction between full and partial tenures. Yet in December 2022, FIFA's Council met in Doha and unanimously agreed that Infantino's first stint — the three years from 2016 to 2019 when he stepped in to finish Sepp Blatter's disgraced tenure — simply wouldn't count. No statutory basis. No regulatory carve-out. Just a roomful of people who work for him deciding his clock started later than it did.
The Loophole That Built a Dynasty
That 2022 Doha decision is the entire architecture of Infantino's continued grip on world football. Without it, he's already at three terms and constitutionally barred from running again. With it, he's a candidate in 2026 and potentially in office through 2031 — fifteen years after taking over from a man who left in handcuffs.
FairSquare's letter, submitted on August 13, argues the point plainly: nothing in FIFA's statutes allows a term to be retrospectively reclassified based on its length. A term is a term. The committee will now have to decide whether to actually enforce the rulebook or find another creative reading that keeps the status quo intact.
The backdrop to all this matters. Infantino's decade at the top has been anything but clean:
- Football Leaks: His name appeared in leaked documents from his UEFA days relating to Financial Fair Play settlements.
- Platini's criminal complaint: The former UEFA president filed a criminal complaint in France alleging Infantino worked behind the scenes to block his FIFA bid.
- The Peace Award: A widely mocked FIFA distinction that became a symbol of the organisation's drift into political theatre.
- Private equity plans: Proposals to sell stakes in FIFA competitions to private equity funds drew serious internal and external criticism.
- 2030 World Cup final allegations: Claims — denied by FIFA — that Morocco was offered the final in exchange for political support.
- The Trump entanglement: Frequent White House appearances and a cosiness with the U.S. administration that sat uneasily against FIFA's supposed political neutrality, especially given the 2026 World Cup immigration controversies.
The Numbers That Make This Hard to Overturn
Here's the uncomfortable reality for anyone hoping FairSquare's letter changes something: more than 200 of FIFA's 211 member associations have already formally endorsed Infantino for a fourth term. The entire Confederation of African Football signed off unanimously. That level of support doesn't evaporate over a governance challenge from an external NGO.
Infantino is currently the only declared candidate for the March 2027 FIFA Congress vote, with new candidacies open until November 18. The Governance Committee has no obligation to fast-track a decision, and FIFA's institutional instinct — built over decades of self-preservation — is unlikely to suddenly reverse course against the man who controls the money.
FairSquare's argument is legally coherent. Whether FIFA's Governance Committee has the independence to act on it is an entirely different question — and one the organisation has spent years avoiding.
