FIFA president Gianni Infantino suffered a significant blow to his re-election prospects after he abruptly shelved a proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup’s commercial rights following fierce backlash from major confederations, according to experts who spoke to Reuters.
Infantino reversed course in the early hours of Saturday, saying FIFA had abandoned the plan after listening carefully to all views. The swift retreat exposed what experts described as growing unease across global football about his style of leadership, with sports officials demanding greater oversight of decisions that could reshape the game’s governance and commercial future.
The episode also raised questions about Infantino’s political standing as he prepares to seek another term as FIFA president. He announced in April that he intends to pursue a fourth term. Since succeeding Sepp Blatter in 2016, he has been re-elected twice without facing a challenger and had appeared to hold firm control of the organisation.
Experts told Reuters that while his re-election for the 2027-2031 term had until recently been considered a formality, the backlash over the failed proposal revealed dissatisfaction among some FIFA members and could complicate his path ahead of the next FIFA Congress in Morocco next year.
Sports marketing analyst Bob Dorfman told Reuters that Infantino had operated in a self-centred manner and had irritated many member federations with some of his decisions. Dorfman added that countries that have hosted World Cups have raised questions, and that politics had become too heavily involved.
The speed of the reversal was particularly striking, coming less than two weeks after Infantino had celebrated what he described as the most commercially successful World Cup in history. Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross, told Reuters it was hard to think of a case where one person’s political fortunes changed so quickly.
Matheson said that just two weeks earlier Infantino had been at the top of the world, with the most successful major sporting event in history behind him, and that only two weeks later he was fighting for his political survival.
