Infantino’s letter went to all 211 member associations, and the deadline to challenge him is 18 November
FIFA’s president has offered the Council an independent review of how the governing body handles major strategic plans. It follows the collapse of the plan to sell a stake in the World Cup, and it lands before nominations close on 18 November.
Sep 22, 2026
Gianni Infantino wrote to every one of FIFA’s 211 member associations on 21 September to say he is willing to have FIFA’s governance looked at by somebody outside FIFA. The offer arrives eight weeks after the plan that made it necessary, and eight weeks before the deadline for anyone who wants to run against him.
What the letter actually proposes
The letter went to FIFA Council members and all 211 associations ahead of the next Council meeting on 15 October. In it, Infantino writes: “I will ask the Council whether it wishes to commission an external, independent assessment of FIFA’s current governance framework for major strategic initiatives and to recommend potential improvements.”
Read that clause again. The assessment is of the framework for major strategic initiatives, not of the president who ran one. Infantino also addressed the way the plan became public, saying it “caused concern and created the impression that decisions had already been taken. They had not.”
The plan that caused this
FIFA announced FIFA Forward Enterprise on 28 July. It was to be a commercial subsidiary holding the commercial rights to FIFA’s competitions, the World Cup included, together with the job of running the tournaments. FIFA wanted to raise 4.2 billion dollars against a valuation of 20 billion, with an investor group led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital lined up to take a minority stake. Member associations were told they could expect up to 40 million dollars each.
It did not last a week. On 30 July all 55 UEFA associations voted unanimously to boycott future World Cups and every other FIFA competition until FFE was abandoned in full and FIFA gave binding assurances it would never again open its governance or its competitions to private ownership. CONCACAF and its 41 associations rejected the plan the same day. At the turn of the month Infantino withdrew it, saying it had created divisions that no longer served its original purpose.
Withdrawing it did not end it
On 27 August UEFA said FIFA had written to confirm FFE was irrevocably and permanently withdrawn and would not come back in any form. On the strength of those assurances UEFA provisionally suspended its withdrawal from FIFA competitions, which covered the Women’s Under-20, Under-17 and Women’s Under-17 World Cups.
Suspending the boycott was not the same as dropping the matter. UEFA is preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland, where FIFA is based, over possible financial mismanagement, and has filed in a Manhattan court to obtain evidence through the American discovery process to take to the Swiss authorities.
Denmark’s federation president Jesper Moller then pushed publicly on how little had been explained, and in mid-September FIFA said a review of the withdrawn proposal would go to the Council. The letter of 21 September is what that has turned into.
The calendar is the part to watch
Anyone who wants to stand against Infantino has until 18 November to be put forward. The election is in March 2027, and Infantino, who is 56, is running for a fourth term. The Council he is asking to commission the review meets on 15 October, five weeks before that nomination deadline.
Whether an external review of the governance framework satisfies the associations that spent late July threatening to boycott the World Cup is a separate question, and one that will not be answered before the Council sits.