Norway became the first national football federation to explicitly demand Gianni Infantino’s resignation on Friday. An escalation of a crisis that has already seen England, Wales, Croatia and Albania withdraw their support for the FIFA president.
Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness left no room for ambiguity.
“He does not have the institutional trust required to govern FIFA stably in the times we are in,” she said.
“There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. We want to ask the FIFA president to resign now.”
Klaveness, a qualified lawyer, outlined a series of concerns her federation had raised with FIFA over four years, including questions around how tournaments are awarded, the granting of the inaugural FIFA peace prize to US President Donald Trump in December, and the overturning of a competition ban for American forward Folarin Balogun during the recent World Cup following a phone call from Trump.
The immediate trigger for the current wave of opposition is Infantino’s aborted plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors. A proposal UEFA described as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal.”
UEFA has formally declared it has lost confidence in Infantino and has not ruled out a European boycott of the World Cup. Further stating that its conditions for continued participation have not yet been met.
Mixed Reactions
Not everyone is pushing in the same direction. Mexico, a co-host of the 2026 World Cup, broke from its regional governing body CONCACAF to publicly back Infantino, with the Mexican Football Federation stating it supports his leadership in “continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening.” Argentina’s football association praised Infantino for acknowledging his errors and described his decade in charge as built on “transparent governance.”
CONMEBOL, South America’s governing body, stopped short of calling for his removal while expressing concern over “repeated unilateral actions.” The African Football Confederation is backing Infantino unanimously. CONCACAF, meanwhile, stopped short of demanding his resignation but called for a “comprehensive reckoning” of his presidency. Also describing the World Cup stake sale as a symptom of “leadership that has stopped putting football first.”
FIFA has not responded to the calls for resignation. Infantino has survived controversy before. Whether he survives this one depends on who blinks first.
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