Gianni Infantino opened Thursday's FIFA Council meeting with an apology. He finished it facing open doubts about whether he should keep his job. The president told the 37-member board he was sorry for not consulting it on the Fifa Forward Enterprise plan, the proposal he dropped within days that would have handed part of FIFA's commercial rights to a private investment firm, the Guardian and BBC Sport reported.
Over three and a half hours, members pressed him on that plan, on the overturned suspension of USA striker Folarin Balogun, on the FIFA peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and on funding for national associations. According to the Guardian, the dozens of questions submitted by European federations largely went without answers.
Hewitt and Neuendorf Push Back
Debbie Hewitt, chair of the Football Association and a FIFA vice-president, said the room got contrition but not the documents it had requested on FFE, and that members were told to put their questions in writing. "I think the man has to answer those questions," she said, as reported by BBC Sport, adding that without those answers he is not fit to be president.
Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German Football Association, went further. He called for a complete overhaul of how FIFA is run and said he did not believe that could happen with Infantino in charge. He also read the apology narrowly, saying it seemed to be about bypassing the council rather than the FFE idea itself.
What the Council Did Decide
Not everything stalled. Members approved distributing $3.5 billion from FIFA's reserves, with each national association set to receive about £25 million over the next four-year cycle, the Guardian reported. A proposed change to disciplinary rules that would end the option of overturning a straight red card was deferred until the council gets more information on the Balogun case.
The question of whether the peace prize returns this year was handed to FIFA's social responsibility committee, and Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa will chair a new governance reform committee.
The Race for a Challenger
Infantino is running for a third term in March, and nominations close on November 18. No credible opponent has emerged yet, BBC Sport reported, though Neuendorf told the Guardian he is very confident one will be found and senior Uefa figures expect a late entry.
Hewitt framed a contested vote as healthy for the sport, noting Infantino ran unopposed in 2019 and 2023. The council meets again on December 16, when Infantino has promised the information on Balogun, after the nomination window has already shut.
Reporting sources: Sport | The Guardian, “Infantino ‘not fit’ to lead Fifa, claim European FA heads after council meeting” · sports.yahoo.com, “Infantino apologises to Fifa Council - but told he's still not fit to lead”.