Gianni Infantino Faces Growing Opposition Amid Reform Claims
Gianni Infantino’s grip on power at Fifa is under fiercer attack than ever – and Germany’s FA president has just accused him of using reform talk as nothing more than a re-election tool.
Neuendorf calls Infantino’s move a “transparent ploy”
Under intense pressure after his controversial plan to sell a 20 per cent stake in Fifa competitions to private investors collapsed, Infantino wrote to all 211 member associations and Fifa Council members on Monday evening, laying out his vision for change.
In that letter, which several media outlets reported on, the Fifa president proposed an “independent external review of Fifa's current governance framework”. He also insisted that his attempted sell-off had never put “Fifa's democratic processes, independence and sporting authority” up for sale.
The timing has gone down badly in Germany.
DFB president Bernd Neuendorf did not bother to sugar-coat his response.
“I regard Gianni Infantino's letter as a transparent ploy to secure his re-election next year,” he said on Tuesday, directly linking the reform pitch to the Fifa presidential election scheduled for March 2027.
“Fundamentally, Fifa now seems to have recognised that changes are essential. However, Gianni Infantino is definitely not the right person to lead a reform process. He has squandered all credibility.”
Mounting global resistance
Infantino’s position has been badly weakened since the investment scheme blew up. The proposal, which included World Cup rights among the assets on offer, triggered outrage across the game and has now been abandoned. The political fallout, though, continues to spread.
Uefa has taken the lead in demanding change, going as far as threatening to boycott Fifa competitions. Several of its member associations have already withdrawn support for Infantino’s re-election bid. Resistance is no longer confined to Europe either: opposition has also emerged from the Asian confederation and from Concacaf, which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Despite that, Infantino is refusing to step aside, clinging to office while trying to sell himself as the man to clean up the very system he has overseen.
Germany is not buying it.
Germany’s break with Fifa’s president
The DFB had already distanced itself from Infantino before the latest World Cup-related scandals erupted. In July, the federation confirmed it had withheld its backing for another term.
“The DFB has not signed a letter of support for the re-election of Gianni Infantino,” the governing body stated at the time. “Further steps will be discussed in the DFB presidential board.”
Those “further steps” now look more pointed, with Neuendorf openly challenging Infantino’s legitimacy as a reformer.
Former Germany national team director Oliver Bierhoff has echoed that loss of faith, framing the dispute as a battle over the soul of the sport.
“We have to take care of football,” he said. “It is already commercial but it is a property for all of football. The world views may be different but in the last weeks and months a lot happened so that we have no trust any more that it will be going in the right direction.”
The question now is whether Infantino’s promised governance review can calm a storm that shows every sign of building – or whether this is the beginning of the endgame for his presidency.
