FairSquare Urges FIFA to Block Gianni Infantino's Re-election Bid

Human rights advocacy group FairSquare has formally urged FIFA to block president Gianni Infantino from seeking re-election, arguing that a fourth term would violate the organization’s statutory limit of three terms in office ahead of the scheduled March 18 vote in Morocco.

The Term-Limit Challenge and the 2022 Ruling

In a letter addressed to members of a FIFA Review Committee operating under the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC), the group argued that Infantino is already serving his third and final term and cannot legally stand again.

The core dispute centers on Infantino’s initial entry into office. In December 2022, however, Infantino successfully argued that his first spell—running from 2016 to 2019—should not count toward his statutory limit because it merely completed an interrupted mandate rather than constituting a full term in its own right.

FairSquare’s letter, dated August 13, contends that the FIFA Council confirmed its agreement with the GACC opinion during a December 16, 2022 meeting in Doha, Qatar. The advocacy group maintains that neither the FIFA Statutes nor the FIFA Governance Regulations contain any provisions allowing a presidential term to be discounted simply because it lasted less than the maximum four years.

Questions Over Transparency and Independent Legal Backing

Beyond the legal interpretation of the statutes, FairSquare raised concerns regarding the opacity of the 2022 ruling. The advocacy group pointed out that the GACC report provided to the FIFA Council at the time has never been made available to the public, leaving the underlying justification for discounting the first term shrouded in administrative silence.

FairSquare Urges FIFA to Block Gianni Infantino's Re-election Bid — Photo: Inshorts

To bolster its legal position, the FairSquare letter was drafted with assistance from Miguel Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s independent Governance and Review Committee. Maduro publicly criticized the governing body’s approach to its own internal regulations, warning that bending the rules undermines the structural integrity of the sport.

“Trying to carve out an exception to such a rule for Mr Infantino reveals both a resistance to the principle of term limits and how some at FIFA conceive of rules not as rules but as obstacles to be circumvented.”

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Miguel Maduro, former head of FIFA’s independent Governance and Review Committee, via Aljazeera

Mounting Political Opposition and Wider Controversy

The term-limit challenge arrives amid a broader wave of friction between Infantino and major football confederations. Recently, UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation, and CONCACAF called for an official review of Infantino’s conduct. That push followed a controversial FIFA proposal to create a substantive subsidiary linked to its competitions—including the World Cup—designed to draw in private investment. Sources indicated that those major confederations viewed the pushback as a potential exit ramp for the incumbent president.

Rights group urges FIFA to block Infantino re-election bid over term limits — Photo: Aljazeera

National associations are also fracturing over the leadership question. Ian Maxwell, chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, confirmed to the BBC that his organization would not support Infantino’s re-election bid. However, Infantino continues to maintain firm backing from both African and South American football confederations.

Prior Ethics Complaints and the 2027 Election Timeline

This latest legal filing is part of a broader campaign by FairSquare against the current leadership. In December, the non-profit submitted an eight-page complaint to FIFA’s Ethics Committee alleging repeated breaches of political neutrality and questioning the process that awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to United States President Donald Trump. That earlier complaint subsequently secured the formal backing of the Norwegian Football Federation.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino loses support from football associations for re-election bid

Infantino remains the only candidate to announce an intention to stand for the 2027–31 cycle. With the election vote scheduled to take place during the FIFA Congress in Morocco on March 18, the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee faces mounting pressure to formally respond to FairSquare’s demand before ballots are cast.

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