Gianni Infantino isn't just facing critics from the outside — people inside FIFA are actively working to bring him down. The leaks, the timing, the targets. None of this is accidental.
The clearest sign came during the World Cup, when details of a phone call between Donald Trump and FIFA — in which the U.S. president reportedly requested that Folarin Balogun's suspension be overturned — were handed to British media almost as the call was happening. Only a handful of people inside FIFA knew it had taken place. Someone chose to burn Infantino with that information, and they did it deliberately.
Trump's shadow over the tournament
The Balogun leak was the loudest explosion, but the fuse had been burning for months. Trump's repeated appearances around football — the Club World Cup last year, then throughout this summer's World Cup — created the impression he held influence over the sport. Infantino seemed unbothered by that perception. Much of football's leadership was not.
Before the tournament kicked off in Mexico City on June 11, Trump had reportedly lobbied to change the schedule and block Iran from entering the United States. Infantino apparently talked him down. That story only became public later — another leak, another controlled detonation aimed at FIFA's president.
Then came the Disciplinary Committee chairman's decision to overturn Balogun's ban without consulting the rest of the committee. UEFA's Aleksander Čeferin responded within hours. He's been the most consistent thorn in Infantino's side for years, and this gave him exactly the ammunition he needed.
The walls closing in
What makes this genuinely dangerous for Infantino isn't the UEFA pressure — that's been a constant. It's the people turning on him who were, until recently, considered his own allies. Senior figures who built their influence inside the FIFA structure he created are now signaling, publicly and privately, that they want change. That's a different category of threat entirely.
Infantino reportedly feels betrayed and wants face-to-face explanations. He also knows his window to secure another presidential term is shrinking with each controversy. His flagship projects — an expanded 64-team World Cup in 2030, the revamped Club World Cup — are increasingly uncertain. Though right now, his own political survival may be the more pressing concern.
FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström has reportedly intervened in writing, calling for a return to stability. The 2030 World Cup itself isn't under threat, despite some reports suggesting otherwise. Spain has not considered withdrawing. But there is growing unease in Madrid and elsewhere about FIFA's increasingly visible closeness to Morocco — a relationship several federations don't consider normal or neutral.
The anti-Infantino operation is real, it's coordinated, and it has Čeferin's fingerprints all over the response — even if not necessarily the leaks themselves. Anyone pricing FIFA presidential futures should know the field is wider than it looked six months ago.
