Infantino finds support among football legends as pressure to resign intensifies

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is receiving support from former football greats as the world body's leadership is increasingly challenged. World champions Cafu and Roberto Carlos, as well as former Argentine international Javier Zanetti, have spoken out in favor of Infantino, after several federations and football figures called for changes at the top of FIFA, EFE reports.

Cafu, a world champion with Brazil in 1994 and 2002, Roberto Carlos, world champion in 2002, and Javier Zanetti, currently vice-president of Inter Milan, have sent public messages of support for Infantino. The statement was also published by other former internationals, including Argentines Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Pastore. "Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the efforts made by FIFA and President Infantino to ensure that footballers are represented in the world of football, something that did not exist before,” the former players said. They claim that footballers have been given a more important role in FIFA structures, through participation in committees, projects and working groups. "Our opinions are listened to, and many initiatives for the benefit of football are taking shape thanks to our perspectives, ideas, plans and involvement,” the South American legends said. The former footballers said they continue to support the evolution of football over the past decade and the goal of the sport reaching as many people as possible and generating benefits in the countries where it is played.

• Support comes after a series of calls for change

The stance of Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Zanetti comes at a time when Infantino is facing increasing pressure on FIFA's leadership. Several former world champions have recently called for a "necessary change” in the leadership of world football. Among them are Frenchmen Emmanuel Petit, Bixente Lizarazu and Robert Pires, as well as former Ivorian international Didier Drogba. They have criticised the way power is exercised within the organisation and claimed that the current leadership has reached a point where its own interests risk being confused with those of football.

The controversy has been fuelled in particular by FIFA's plan, which was later abandoned, to sell part of the rights associated with competitions such as the World Cup to private investors.

Pressure on Infantino also comes from national federations. A few days ago, the six Nordic football federations - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands - said they had lost confidence in the FIFA president and called for reforms to the organisation's governance. They also supported the call for an independent inquiry into the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan and demanded guarantees that the rights to FIFA competitions would not be opened up to private ownership. Infantino is also being challenged by UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF, who have called for his resignation and an independent external investigation into the recent controversies. The Gibraltar federation has joined, according to EFE, those of England, Ireland, Wales, Sweden, Israel and New Zealand in withdrawing support for the current FIFA chief.

• Infantino aims for a new mandate

Despite the pressure, Gianni Infantino maintains his intention to run for a new mandate at the FIFA leadership. The elections are scheduled for March 18, 2027, in Rabat, and Infantino is thus aiming to obtain a fourth mandate, which would allow him to remain in office until 2031. The current situation, however, is different from that of two months ago, when Infantino benefited, according to information cited by EFE, from the support of over 200 federations. The withdrawal of support from some national federations and the criticism coming from some former football greats is creating increasing political pressure on the FIFA president. The public support expressed by Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Javier Zanetti thus offers Infantino a counterweight to the criticism coming from some federations and former world champions, but does not eliminate the dispute over the direction in which world football is being led and the way in which FIFA exercises its power.