As the 2026 World Cup drew to a close last month, many would have expected tournament organiser FIFA to slip back behind the scenes as fans around the world turned their attentions to their respective club teams once again.
FIFA, it seems, had other ideas.
The football world governing body sparked huge backlash in late July when it announced a plan to invite private investors to take stakes in a new subsidiary known as the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which would have run its commercial operations and events, including the World Cup.
The proposal, which FIFA said could raise up to $4.2 billion based on an initial valuation of $20 billion, prompted fierce criticism from across the football community.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his team have since scrapped the plan and issued an apology for the way the situation was handled, with Infantino vowing to fight on in his role despite mounting calls for him to step down.
The crisis has now evolved into a widening divide between confederations and associations across the globe.
Euronews has taken a look at who is getting behind the embattled FIFA chief and who is calling for change.
Against
European governing body UEFA has dished out particularly strong criticism of Infantino and the FFE idea, announcing that its 55 member associations would boycott FIFA competitions unless the plan was abandoned.
UEFA later said that FIFA’s continued support for Infantino – who had already been facing scrutiny over his relationship with US President Donald Trump – and its apology over the FFE proposal “changes nothing.”
“UEFA’s associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non-participation in FIFA competitions,” it said in a statement on Thursday. “First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn, and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again,” it said. “These conditions have not been met.”
Some individual associations also moved quickly to withdraw support for Infantino’s re-election bid as the controversy gathered pace.
Wales, Finland, Serbia, and Sweden were among the first to announce they would no longer back the FIFA president for another term, with the Serbian FA calling its decision the “only logical and rational course of action” after recent events had “seriously damaged the standing and reputation of both FIFA and its president.”
They have since been followed by football associations from England, Norway, Jordan, and Albania.
The Norwegian FA went a step further, calling for Infantino to resign after it said its “trust” had been broken.
“We believe that trust has now been lost and that FIFA needs new leadership,” Lise Klaveness, its president, said. “When trust is lost, the leadership must also be reassessed. We therefore believe that Gianni Infantino’s time as FIFA President should be over, and we are asking him to step down.”
For
However, Infantino still retains some allies across the football world, in particular among associations working with smaller budgets, where ensuring continued funding is critical to remaining competitive.
On Thursday, the Confederation of African Football announced it had “unanimously reconfirmed its support” for Infantino while thanking him for his help developing African football.
“CAF will continue to focus on making African Football amongst the best in the world and is reaffirming its commitment to adhering to global governance, transparency and auditing best practices,” its president, Patrice Motsepe, said.
In October, Infantino told an audience in Kinshasa that FIFA had invested more than $1 billion into African football through its FIFA Forward Programme since 2016. The Forward Programme helps provide development funding and support to FIFA’s 211 member associations.
The governing body says it will have provided around $1.28 billion in support to the continent by the end of 2026.
World Cup cohosts Mexico are also standing behind Infantino, as are Paraguay and World Cup runners-up Argentina.
Despite heavy criticism of FIFA from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, of which it is a member, the Mexican Football Federation said it “supports president Infantino’s leadership to continue driving the development of football through institutional strengthening.”
For its part, Argentina, whose national team have been dealing with their own fair share of controversy in recent weeks, praised Infantino for his work since he was first elected as president in 2016 and commended him for recognising his “mistakes.”