FIFA Confirms Gianni Infantino Will Run for Re-Election in March 2027 Despite Scrapped World Cup Sell-Off Plan

Since FIFA's plan to sell stakes in World Cup profits to private investors surfaced in late July, Gianni Infantino has faced the loudest calls to resign of his decade running world soccer. FIFA put those calls to rest, for now, on Sunday, September 6.

"The FIFA President announced in April that he will stand for re-election in 2027. Of course, nothing has changed. Mr. Infantino will be standing for re-election," a FIFA spokesperson said, according to the Associated Press.

The next FIFA presidential election is set for the 77th FIFA Congress on Thursday, March 18, 2027, in Rabat, Morocco, according to Euronews. If Infantino wins, the 56-year-old Swiss official would serve a final term through 2031. Candidates have until November 18 to enter the race, four months ahead of the vote.

The Plan

The backlash traces back to a proposal, floated through a commercial subsidiary dubbed the FIFA Forward Enterprise, to let third-party investors buy stakes in World Cup profits. Euronews reports the idea drew accusations that FIFA was trying to "sell" the sport itself. UEFA, European soccer's governing body, threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments including the World Cup over it.

FIFA scrapped the plan. In August, UEFA said it received "assurances" the proposal had been "irrevocably and permanently withdrawn" and would not "re-appear in any other shape, construction, name or form," per Euronews. UEFA dropped its boycott threat. FIFA has since apologized for what it called errors in how the plan was handled and committed to "ensure they do not happen again," according to PBS.

That apology hasn't ended it. UEFA is still preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Swiss courts, alleging possible financial mismanagement tied to the abandoned scheme, PBS and the AP report. UEFA has also filed legal papers in the United States seeking disclosure of FIFA documents and evidence, warning it could escalate the Swiss complaint, according to BBC Sport. No charges have been filed against Infantino as of this writing. These remain allegations from a rival governing body, not findings from a court or prosecutor.

FIFA is pushing back hard. The organization this week accused UEFA of running a "smear campaign" against its leadership, BBC Sport reported.

Who's Actually Turned on Him

The defections are real and specific. The football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have all publicly withdrawn support for Infantino's re-election, according to the BBC. Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said last month that Infantino was not the right man to lead the sport's governing body, per PBS.

BBC Sport reports UEFA believes it can find a candidate to run against Infantino, though none has been named. Concacaf president Victor Montagliani is considered a serious possibility. Any challenger needs the backing of at least 106 of FIFA's 211 member associations to get on the ballot.

UEFA has abandoned an earlier idea of forcing a no-confidence vote to remove Infantino outright. That would have required three-quarters of the membership, 159 votes, to change FIFA's statutes, a threshold BBC Sport called unrealistic given how the votes are currently spread across regional confederations that still back Infantino.

The Fair Case for Infantino

Infantino's defenders can reasonably point out that the plan was withdrawn before it took effect, that no money changed hands, and that FIFA has apologized and committed to structural safeguards against a repeat. No court has found wrongdoing. UEFA's criminal complaint is, at this stage, an allegation from an organization that has an obvious institutional interest in unseating him, not a neutral verdict. Infantino himself has stayed above the fray publicly. Asked about his future while arriving at the Under-20 Women's World Cup opening in Poland on Saturday, he told Sky News: "There will be a lot to say, but there will be a right place and a right time to say this. It's not today, it's not here, but here and today, we are enjoying football."

What's Unresolved

Whether UEFA actually files its Swiss criminal complaint, and what a prosecutor does with it, remains open. So does the identity of any challenger, with the November 18 nomination deadline serving as the hard clock on that question. FIFA's 211 member associations, not UEFA alone, will decide in March whether the sell-off controversy sinks a decade-long presidency or whether Infantino's remaining support across Africa, Asia, and the Americas is enough to carry him to a fourth term.