French Football Federation Withdraws Support for Gianni Infantino

On September 10, 2026, during an executive committee meeting, the French Football Federation (FFF) decided to withdraw its support for Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president who is running for re-election in March 2027. Philippe Diallo, president of the FFF, announced the decision, which was made collectively. "We believe that the trust placed in the FIFA president has been betrayed and that the way global football governance is being envisioned no longer corresponds to us," said Diallo in a statement. Hence, unanimously, the FFF decided to withdraw support for Infantino's candidacy for the FIFA presidency.

Infantino is the only declared candidate for the election scheduled for March 18, and he continues to cling to his position despite calls for his resignation and pressures from several federations and confederations that have also withdrawn their support. In recent weeks, Infantino has faced criticism for a governance model deemed opaque by his opponents. They accused him of developing a project to create a commercial company, open to private investors up to 20%, to house the revenues from the World Cup without proper consultation. Following backlash over this revelation, Infantino, who has led FIFA since 2016, abandoned the plan four days later.

This summer, Philippe Diallo quickly opposed Infantino’s proposal to sell shares of the World Cup to private funds controlled by associates of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Before France, several European federations, including those of Sweden, Scotland, Italy, and Belgium, had already withdrawn their support for Infantino. This also included various supporters’ groups, former players, and one of FIFA's vice presidents, Hungarian Sandor Csanyi.