UEFA questions the independence of FIFA's election and ethics chiefs
FIFA has until 2 November to respond to more than 200 unresolved points and provide supporting documents, just 16 days before the deadline for presidential candidatures. The questions cover Infantino's role in key decisions, the administration's neutrality and Bruno Chiomento's four key positions.
The leadership of the Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA) is keeping up the pressure on world governing body FIFA and its president and IOC member Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino. On Monday, UEFA General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis sent an eight-page list of 42 sets of unresolved questions to his FIFA counterpart Mattias Grafström. On closer inspection, the UEFA paper contains more than 200 open points, requests and details, with a deadline of 2 November set for answers. Written answers together with all documentation are demanded for every point.
"Any refusal to disclose information or documents should be justified individually," Theodoridis writes. "In the meantime and ahead of your replies, we request a copy of the audio recording, together with all slides and other materials" presented during the FIFA Council meeting in Zurich on 15 October. Yet another demonstration of mistrust.
"These questions require answers now. They cannot be deferred until the next meeting of the FIFA Council – nor can future governance reforms substitute for scrutiny of decisions already taken and accountability for them."
The haste is warranted. 18 November is the deadline for candidatures for the FIFA presidential election at the Congress in Rabat on 18 March 2027. So far UEFA has not put forward a challenger to Infantino, who has been in office since 2016 and will stand again. On 16 December the FIFA Council meets for its next session in Doha.
Naturally, the new letter covers all the issues that have made headlines worldwide in recent months and years: Infantino's closeness to Donald Trump, the Balogun case at the 2026 World Cup, the so-called FIFA Peace Prize, the two attempts to bring investors on board and sell stakes in FIFA assets (2018 with SoftBank, in summer 2026 FIFA Forward Enterprise/FFE), the recently revealed additional million-dollar payments to Infantino, the filling of key positions with his allies, and much more.
