The heads of the Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A have issued a joint open letter calling for fundamental governance reforms at FIFA, world football's governing body. The letter, released on Friday, warns that football's longstanding foundations are being threatened by a governance problem where FIFA's president has allegedly promoted exploitative ideas rather than safeguarding against them. However, the league bosses stopped short of calling for Gianni Infantino's resignation and did not even mention him by name.
The criticism follows the controversial plan for private investment through a commercial vehicle, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which emerged in late July. The idea was for FFE to organize FIFA's tournaments while maximizing profits. Vigorous opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF, and the Asian Football Confederation led Infantino to quickly drop the plan. Yet the leagues noted that this has not solved a deeper problem and dismissed Infantino's recent announcement of an independent external review of FIFA governance as insufficient. "It is not enough for surface-level, process changes to be explored in the aftermath of FFE – fundamental governance reform is essential to restore clear constitutional boundaries within FIFA," the letter stated.
The letter also referenced widespread discontent over FIFA's handling of the Folarin Balogun case. The US striker's one-match ban was suspended to allow him to play a World Cup last-16 match against Belgium. While the ban was imposed by FIFA's disciplinary committee, it came after US President Donald Trump personally called Infantino asking for a "review" of the ban – something Trump publicly admitted. The leagues called for greater checks and balances to ensure individual disciplinary matters remain demonstrably insulated from political interference.
Furthermore, the leagues demanded a greater say in decisions such as increases in the number of international matches. "When FIFA takes major unilateral decisions directly affecting us – for example, by expanding the International Match Calendar (IMC) and extending the periods in which domestic competitions must pause – the stakeholders most affected are not meaningfully involved in the decision-making process," they said. "A FIFA governance that concentrates unchecked regulatory, commercial and political power in a single office, while relegating affected stakeholders to mere advisory status, is not fit for purpose."
The letter comes as UEFA is reportedly looking for a suitable candidate to challenge Infantino in the next presidential election in March 2027, where Infantino has said he will run for reelection. UEFA has also called for an independent external review of how the FFE plan was developed and filed legal applications through US courts for the disclosure of documents related to the plan. This is with a view to a possible criminal complaint being lodged in Switzerland if it is established that Infantino undervalued FFE at $20 billion (€17.5 billion). FIFA has described UEFA's legal moves as a "smear campaign" against it but has not yet commented on Friday's letter from the league bosses.
Infantino aims to discuss his proposals at a FIFA Council meeting in Zurich on October 15, a week after UEFA is to hold a meeting of all of its 55 member associations on October 8 in Berlin. Any person aiming to challenge Infantino in the March 18, 2027 FIFA presidential election must register as a candidate by November 18.
Source: www.dw.com