Beyond the numerous criticisms in recent days, Gianni Infantino could see his bid for a new term as FIFA president challenged.
Indeed, the FairSquare organization has referred the matter to the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee to request that the Italian-Swiss leader be declared ineligible for the election scheduled for next year. The association has argued that Infantino is already serving his third and final term, contrary to FIFA’s interpretation in 2022.
In a letter sent on August 13, FairSquare calls for “declaring Mr. Infantino ineligible for a new mandate as FIFA president, as he is already serving his third and final term.” The organization states that the decision allowing his first term to be excluded constitutes a “flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of FIFA’s statutory provision relating to the limitation of the number of terms.”
It should be noted that at the heart of the dispute is the period 2016-2019, when Gianni Infantino had succeeded Sepp Blatter mid-term. As a reminder, in 2022, FIFA’s Council had confirmed that this period should not be counted as a presidential term.
FairSquare now disputes this interpretation, noting that the statutes provide that “no one may hold the office of president for more than three terms,” without distinguishing the duration of the term or the circumstances of the election. The organization also states that “neither FIFA’s statutes nor FIFA’s governance framework provide for the possibility of deducting a presidential term merely because it did not last the maximum four-year duration.”
