playGabriele MarcottiOct 17, 2026, 05:38 AM ETCloseGabriele Marcotti is a senior soccer writer for ESPN.com. Read his archive here and follow him on Twitter: @Marcotti.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsAfter the meeting, like clockwork, comes the spin.FIFA Council meetings, such as the one held Thursday in Zurich — where opponents of embattled president Gianni Infantino were hoping to get answers on everything from the botched attempt to spin off FIFA’s commercial operation and sell it to Josh Kushner’s private equity group, to why the organization sits on billions of cash reserves, to the procedure that led to the suspension of Folarin Balogun’s ban at the World Cup to the future of the FIFA Peace Prize (and what prompted its creation in the first place) — are closed to the media and the public.What we know comes from the official FIFA communique and from information gathered from people in the room. And since the meeting concluded, each side — Infantino loyalists and the UEFA-led opposition — offered its own take.Infantino’s loyalists suggested to ESPN that the president’s call for “unity” had been well-received after he apologized for “mistakes” — such as secretly negotiating the sale of a chunk of FIFA’s revenue stream — and that increasing the money disbursed to member associations to $6.35 billion over four years should keep everyone happy. They also pointed to the fact that any issues of governance will be looked at by a newly formed “working group.”They noted that Infantino’s opponents have yet to field a candidate to oppose him, that the rest of the world doesn’t trust the big European nations with control of the game and that whatever governance mistakes were made, FIFA can clean its own house.Infantino’s opposition emphasized to ESPN that though it was disappointing that the FIFA president wasn’t more forthcoming with detail and documents, and that there wasn’t enough support to establish an independent external committee for investigating the many complaints brought against him, the screws continue to turn.
There are legal filings against Infantino, and much of his own hand-picked leadership team seems somewhere between on the fence and thoroughly disillusioned — none more so than Kevin Lamour, who was FIFA’s chief operating officer until August, when he resigned in protest because of the Kushner plan. There’s more than a month left to find a candidate to oppose him in the March elections.Then, of course, Infantino’s predecessor, disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, took to social media to launch a hashtag-laden diatribe:Gianni Infantino, the Greatest ! An astonishing performance in Zurich: Infantino, apparently a good Catholic, confesses his sins and then promises 25 million. Confession, indulgence and absolution – all in one appearance!
The Pope would love it. But in football, as in the Church, credibility cannot be bought. #Fifa #GianniInfantino #indulgence #absolution #ThePope— Joseph S Blatter (@SeppBlatter) October 16, 2026 Blatter, 90, might enjoy throwing stones at FIFA’s glass house more than most after he was forced to resign as president in 2015 and investigated by the authorities for fraud. His use of hashtags on social media might range somewhere between tacky and inappropriate. But his reading tracked with that of many observers who have grown cynical of the organization.The impression, though, as I speak to folks on both sides of the Gianni-sphere, is that things are still up in the air.
Though it’s true that we’re not getting daily calls for his resignation, as we did in late July and August, and UEFA isn’t threatening to pull out of FIFA competitions, the “nuclear option” remains, but UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin isn’t waving it around.It’s possible that having a “working group” in matters such as FIFA governance rather than an independent audit will result in either a whitewash or a slow roll. But putting someone like Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman, who ran against Infantino in 2016 and is anything but a Gianni loyalist, in charge is significant, and he has muscle to flex.A quick aside: Though the forthcoming reviews of the FIFA Peace Prize and the disciplinary procedures in the Balogun case — handed to the in-house legal committee and the social responsibility committee, respectively — will likely yield predictable outcomes, they were never going to move the needle in determining the FIFA presidency.Meanwhile, the court filing in U.S. federal courts demanding permission to obtain testimony and documents from FIFA and others involved in the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — Infantino’s plan to spin off the commercial and operational rights of major tournaments such as the World Cup — rumbles on. There’s no guarantee on timing and court approval, and FIFA can fight it, but there’s no guarantee some of the others involved in the project will choose to cooperate.And then there’s the $6.35 billion pledged to the 211 member associations ($25 million each from the smallest to the biggest). Those are the “indulgences” Blatter railed against in his post; for those who don’t know, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church used to allow sinners to buy indulgences (essentially major donations to the church) in exchange for wiping out sins.
It’s true, as I’ve written many times, that the bulk of member nations wouldn’t have functioning national teams or governance structures without FIFA funding.But remember that Infantino sat on FIFA’s huge reserves for a decade. It’s only now, after public pressure from UEFA and Concacaf, that he’s releasing these additional funds via the snappily named FIFA Surplus Solidarity Programme. This looks like good governance, but it feels more like a campaign promise than anything else.As for the lack of a serious candidate to run against him, there’s still time until nominations close on Nov. 18. Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been mooted by some as a sort of transition/unity candidate, given that he has been part of Infantino’s executive team for the past seven years while also boasting global name recognition and legitimate football bona fides.
Others, such as Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, have announced that they’ll seek another term at their own confederation rather than mounting a challenge now.But situations change. The deadline for nominations isn’t some holy statute handed down on Mount Sinai — it’s a procedural rule that can be overridden. Even elections aren’t final. Blatter was reelected in a landslide in 2015, two days after a significant contingent of his executive committee was arrested at the Baur Au Lac hotel in Zurich as part of the U.S.
Department of Justice’s investigation into FIFA. Four days after that, he quit.In other words, Infantino’s adversaries aren’t ready to call it quits just yet.
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