FIFA president Gianni Infantino has told the organisation’s 211 member associations that he is open to reform, proposing an independent external review of how world football’s governing body takes major decisions.
The letter, sent on Monday to FIFA Council members and national association presidents, comes after Infantino abandoned the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan to sell a minority stake in commercial rights to the World Cup and other tournaments.
UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf later called for changes to FIFA’s leadership.
Infantino continues to indicate he will seek re-election next year.
He will put two proposals to the Council when it meets on October 15.
The first is whether the Council wants to commission “an independent external review of FIFA’s current governance framework for major strategic initiatives and recommend potential improvements”.
The second is a “direct, structured and time-limited consultation” with confederations, member associations and other stakeholders on how decision-making should work.
That process would cover earlier involvement of FIFA’s institutions, the respective roles of the president, the Bureau, the Council and the Congress, and “practical ways to strengthen transparency, participation and accountability”.
Any change to FIFA’s statutes would still need Congress approval. Ideas received before October 15 could be discussed at that meeting.
Football was rocked this summer after leaked FFE plans showed Gianni Infantino wanted to park FIFA’s commercial and ticketing rights, World Cups included, in a new subsidiary and sell a 20 per cent stake to private investors.
One name linked to the plan was Thrive Eternal, a US fund associated with Joshua Kushner. Estimates of the sum that could have been raised ran as high as $10 billion.
UEFA has voted to boycott the World Cup and every other FIFA competition if football’s world governing body presses ahead with plans to sell stakes in its commercial operations to private investors. https://t.co/E9c3HpsXzI
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 31, 2026
Critics saw a cut-price grab at FIFA’s crown jewels, with well-connected friends first in line.
The proposal became public before it had gone through FIFA’s full internal process. UEFA threatened a boycott of FIFA competitions. Several European associations withdrew support. UEFA later said it was preparing a criminal complaint in Switzerland alleging mismanagement.
Nordic associations and others demanded an independent review of how FIFA is run. UEFA and Concacaf also asked FIFA to pay $10 million to each of the 211 members from cash reserves.
Now Infantino writes that he has “taken time to listen”. He says FFE “did not involve relinquishing FIFA’s control or authority over sporting decisions” and that it “entered the public domain before FIFA’s planned institutional process had been completed”.
“I recognise that, without the full context, this caused concern and created the impression that decisions had already been taken. They had not,” he wrote. “It remained a proposal, not a decision, and was always subject to the necessary approvals of the Council and the member associations. It has now been withdrawn and will not proceed.”
He adds that he has heard different views on who should decide major strategic questions, including whether the Bureau should act by unanimity or whether such matters should go straight to Congress. “My role is not to pre-judge that discussion.”
Infantino did not put his own position up for review.
“I remain fully committed to leading FIFA and confident in what we can achieve together,” he wrote. “No association’s treatment will depend on its position on any proposal or institutional matter.” FIFA, he said, “belongs equally to all 211 member associations”.
Infantino was first elected in 2016 after the Sepp Blatter era and the 2015 arrests in Zurich. He has won two further terms, the last unopposed.
While criticism was already growing before the World Cup, the leaked plans have convinced many football representatives he has to go.
Still, it is up for the Council to decide whether to launch the external review and the consultation. Statute changes need Congress. A presidential election is due in 2027.
