FIFA president Gianni Infantino is facing simultaneous attacks on multiple fronts: a British newspaper has accused him of paying off an alleged lover during his tenure at UEFA, a German government minister has become the first member of a national cabinet to call for his resignation, and European football's governing body UEFA is maintaining its threat to boycott the World Cup — all while the fallout from his now-abandoned plan to sell stakes in FIFA tournaments to private investors continues to deepen.
According to The Telegraph, Infantino — an Italian-Swiss lawyer who served as secretary general of UEFA, European football's governing body, from 2009 to 2016 — used his influence to secure a promotion for a UEFA employee with whom he allegedly had an intimate relationship, and later facilitated a departure payment of a six-figure sum plus around £45,000 (approximately $60,700) in business school tuition fees for the same individual. UEFA confirmed to AFP that a departure payment and MBA course fees were paid, describing them as consistent with staff regulations at the time, and noting that those regulations have since been tightened. Infantino, who has been married since 2001, categorically denied the allegations through a FIFA spokesperson, calling them "categorically untrue" and "defamatory". FIFA also issued a broader statement on Saturday condemning what it described as "a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine" the organisation and its president, warning it would "challenge directly and vigorously" any inaccurate or misleading reporting.
The personal allegations come on top of a governance crisis triggered by Infantino's late-July proposal to open World Cup tournaments to private investment. The plan was swiftly shelved under intense pressure — primarily from UEFA — but its withdrawal has not been enough to satisfy critics. UEFA has maintained its threat to boycott future World Cups, and Germany's Minister of State for Culture and Media, Wolfram Weimer, publicly called on Infantino to stand down. "Football is a cultural asset for everyone, not a speculative commodity for the few," Weimer said, adding that UEFA's boycott threat "deserves respect and our support". He also urged the German Football Association (DFB), the world's largest sports federation by membership with 24,000 clubs and eight million members, to mount "active resistance" against the FIFA president.
Weimer also raised questions about other aspects of Infantino's leadership, including the circumstances under which a red-card suspension for US footballer Folarin Balogun was lifted during the recent World Cup, and whether a phone call from US President Donald Trump to Infantino played any role in that decision. FIFA, for its part, insisted it would not tolerate any attempt to influence the presidential election — scheduled for March — outside of its established democratic procedures, warning that those who lack member association support "should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation" what they cannot achieve through proper channels. With Infantino standing for re-election and opposition consolidating around UEFA and key national associations, the coming months are set to be among the most turbulent in FIFA's recent history.