European football leaders are increasingly confident they will find a candidate to stand against Gianni Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election.
One European football association head told the Guardian they were “positive” that Infantino will face an opponent in March, a sentiment echoed by senior figures at Uefa and other national associations before Thursday’s crucial meeting of the Fifa council.
Uefa, Concacaf – the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation – and the Asian Football Confederation have made clear they will oppose Infantino’s re-election bid in the wake of the World Cup sell-off scandal, but have been unable to coalesce around a credible candidate before the 18 November deadline for nominations to be submitted to Fifa.
The respective presidents of the three continental confederations, Aleksander Ceferin, Victor Montagliani and Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, have ruled themselves out and suggestions that high-profile figures such as Arsène Wenger or Michele Kang could put themselves forward have been dismissed.
The former Portugal international Luís Figo, the first former player to call on Infantino to stand down in August, has also been mentioned, although he is also regarded as a potential Uefa president when Ceferin’s final term finishes in 2031.
Despite the seemingly limited pool of candidates, sources with knowledge of the anti-Infantino lobby’s plans are adamant they are making progress. One source said whoever emerges will leave it until close to the deadline to publicly declare their hand, to reduce the time for Fifa to scupper their nomination. The rebels believe the Fifa machine is being commandeered to support Infantino’s re-election campaign.
Infantino will be grilled by members of the 37-strong Fifa council on a range of subjects included the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise plan, the Fifa peace prize and the Folarin Balogun affair, when Fifa’s disciplinary committee overturned the US striker’s suspension during the World Cup.
In an attempt to pre-empt criticism of that decision, which followed an intervention from Donald Trump, the recipient for the inaugural Fifa peace prize, Infantino has proposed an amendment that would remove the disciplinary committee’s option to revoke one-match bans received for players shown a straight red card.
Infantino has pledged to present a full report on FFE on Thursday, although in a break from usual practice that has not been shared with members in advance.
