Is This The End For Gianni Infantino?

All Gianni Infantino needed was patience. Memory for scandal is short, even in a sport as massive as soccer, and whatever controversies the FIFA president willingly courted during the 2026 World Cup would have soon faded into the background as he won what was going to be an unopposed re-election next March. He could have ridden off into the sunset in 2031 and made millions off the connections built during his tenure at the head of FIFA. That wasn’t enough for him, though, and so now, the walls are instead closing in, a self-inflicted error caused by greed and a plan to turn the World Cup into a private equity playground. The post-tournament afterglow was short, and now Infantino faces opposition from most (but, crucially, not all) corners of the soccer world, his ending looming on a quickly approaching horizon.

UEFA’s threat to boycott the World Cup if Infantino went ahead with his investor sell-off was the first domino in a process that ended with Infantino retracting the proposal himself. Since then, it was only a matter of time before the question became what sort of fallout would be in store for Infantino due to his enormous failure. It wasn’t surprising that the gears of his potential ousting began turning in Europe once more. First, UEFA responded to Infantino’s retraction by saying its leaders had “lost confidence” in him. That phrase served as both a statement of UEFA’s enduring disapproval and a further threat, hinting at the possibility of a formal vote of no confidence, which would be the first step in ejecting Infantino from FIFA. Soccer’s national and continental associations then followed suit. Wales first made that move on Wednesday, withdrawing its letter of support for Infantino’s re-election. England’s Football Association soon followed, and the ball kept on rolling from there. Serbia, Sweden, and Finland (which first broached the topic last week) have all officially withdrawn their support. The message, at least from certain parts of the soccer world, is clear: Infantino must go.

Infantino isn’t on an island all alone, however. His work in courting smaller associations around the world has built for him a base of support that has held up even in this period of blunder. As of now, Infantino has reportedly received reiterations of support from about 15 nations, including Qatar and Morocco, two World Cup hosts (the former hosted in 2022, and the latter will be one of the co-hosts in 2030). Egypt, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Kuwait round out the group of seven nations that have already gone public with their support, with eight others reportedly doing so in private. The big domino yet to fall in either direction is Saudi Arabia, which will host the 2034 World Cup. The awarding of that tournament to Saudi Arabia was one of the bigger controversies of Infantino’s tenure.