FIFA’s Infantino ineligible for re-election, says former governance chief

Gianni Infantino cannot stand for ‌‌a fourth term as FIFA president in 2027 under the body’s statutes, says Miguel ⁠⁠Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s governance committee, ⁠⁠as the chief of global football’s governing body seeks re-election.

“Article 33, paragraph two of the FIFA statutes is very clear when it says no person may serve as president for more than three terms,” Maduro told reporters on Tuesday.

“Gianni Infantino has been elected three times, he’s ‌‌been president of FIFA for three terms. So in my view, there’s no way to reconcile another presidency of Infantino.”

Maduro’s comments came two weeks before FIFA’s deadline for submitting candidacies for the presidential election in March 2027.

With the cutoff date looming, human rights organisation FairSquare has written to member associations urging them to declare him ineligible.

FairSquare had previously urged FIFA to rule that Infantino is ineligible to seek another term as president, arguing he has already served ⁠⁠the maximum three terms permitted under the body’s statutes.

But Infantino successfully argued that his first spell in charge, when he was elected at an Extraordinary Congress in 2016 following Sepp Blatter’s resignation, should not count towards that limit because it completed an interrupted ⁠⁠mandate.

In December 2022, the FIFA Council had “unanimously confirmed” that the period between 2016 and 2019 does not count as a term of office for Infantino but FairSquare said the reasoning had never been made public.

Maduro is a Portuguese lawyer who was removed from his post at FIFA in 2017 after he blocked Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko from being re-elected to its top committee.

He added the wording of the rule makes no exception for a shortened term.

“The text of the provision is clear, it talks about three terms. It makes no distinction on whether these terms are complete terms or incomplete terms, four-year terms or terms that may be shorter than the four years,” Maduro said.

Infantino’s re-election ⁠⁠prospects were strengthened significantly last month after the head of Asian football endorsed his bid, while ⁠⁠the support across confederations gives him a commanding position among FIFA’s 211 voting members.

Maduro said FIFA’s governance framework is unable to hold its president accountable, especially when he stands to benefit from rule interpretations, arguing that existing checks and balances on presidential power have failed.

“That has a lot to do ⁠⁠with the weakening of the independence of the bodies that are supposed to control the powers of the president and the political leadership of FIFA,” he explained.

“Unfortunately, the recent evidence that we’ve ⁠⁠had is not one of effective control. On the contrary, it is one ⁠⁠where the president seems to be free to decide and to do whatever you want.”

FairSquare said it had contacted 52 member associations and although no one has yet responded to the call, its director and cofounder Nicholas McGeehan told the Reuters news agency that they will be meeting Norwegian football officials ‌‌on Wednesday.

Norway’s football association (NFF) has previously backed FairSquare’s official complaint against Infantino over a breach of political neutrality rules.

“Given that the NFF have already engaged the Ethics Committee and the Governance Committee, we are hopeful they will set an example on this case ‌‌too,” ‌‌McGeehan said.

“But other associations also need to step up, it can’t always be left to the Norwegians to insist on basic rules.”

Maduro said member associations have been reluctant to act independently because of what he described as a “climate of fear”.