Europe’s top football leagues have turned on FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, with a public rebuke that calls his ideas “exploitative” and demands change before next year’s election.
The Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A issued a joint statement on Friday, 25 September 2026. It criticises Infantino’s “exploitative ideas” and calls for reform of FIFA’s governance ahead of the March 2027 presidential elections. The leagues set out three core commitments they want FIFA to adopt:
- Involvement of key stakeholders (national associations, leagues, clubs, players) in decision-making
- Evidence-based decisions with published explanations
- Separation of FIFA’s commercial functions from its regulatory and guardian roles
The leagues’ complaints
The statement cites “football’s longstanding foundations have, in recent years, been threatened by a fundamental governance problem, whereby FIFA’s president has actively promoted exploitative ideas rather than safeguarding against them.”, which points out that football’s stakeholders ultimately forced the withdrawal of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme. Yet it also notes that the conditions that gave rise to FFE remain in place.
The closing remark concerns FIFA’s choice to permit Folarin Balogun to take part against Belgium at the World Cup even after he was dismissed in the preceding match. It has since become known that US President Donald Trump had engaged with Infantino regarding the suspension of the American forward prior to its one-year duration being confirmed.
The leagues contend that “FIFA’s governance problem goes far beyond the role of one individual. The wider question is whether FIFA’s president should simultaneously wield such regulatory, commercial and political power without effective checks and balances, including the agreement of affected stakeholders.”
More than a decade ago, following criminal proceedings involving senior football officials, FIFA’s own reform process sought to address these issues. The leagues are speaking up as founding members of European Leagues and the World Leagues Association, because they understand how FIFA’s relentless expansionism affects everyone.
They also ask people who might run for the job of president at next year’s FIFA election to put forward their own plans for change.
Infantino’s response
Earlier this week, Infantino sent a letter to FIFA members in which he said he was open to having an outside review of the plan carried out by someone independent. He also argued that he should be permitted to keep leading FIFA, since his duties are greater than any single proposal or disagreement.
On Friday 25, September 2026, at 10:05, UK time, a statement from the leagues was issued. It carries signatures from four executives: Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive; Marc Lenz, the Bundesliga’s CEO; Javier Tebas, LaLiga’s president; and Luigi De Siervo, Serie A’s CEO.
After a backlash that prompted UEFA to pursue legal action, Infantino dropped his plans to sell stakes in the World Cup.
Timeline of events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Earlier this week | Infantino writes to FIFA members, says he is open to an independent external review of the plan |
| Friday 25 September 2026 | Leagues issue joint statement calling for governance reform |
| March 2027 | FIFA presidential election |
What this means for the election
The March 2027 vote will determine who runs world football for years to come. Infantino faces a united front from Europe’s top divisions, and their demand for candidates to publish reform programmes suggests they intend to hold whoever wins accountable.
The clubs are not demanding a new leader at the top. What they want is a change in how things get done — a system where those who are most affected by FIFA’s choices have some input into them.
Pressure from football’s stakeholders led to the withdrawal of the FFE scheme, while the Balogun case illustrated how political intervention can overturn a suspension.
The leagues’ proposals call for scrutiny, and Infantino’s own letter admitted the need for it, yet it stopped short of committing to the changes they put forward. The election will be the test of whether those changes actually happen.
The leagues have made their position clear.
See the video the story is built around at Sky Sports.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.