Gianni Infantino Faces Growing Opposition from Germany’s FA
Gianni Infantino’s grip on power at Fifa is facing its fiercest challenge yet – and Germany’s FA has just made clear it wants him nowhere near the reforms he is now promising.
The Fifa president has been under intense pressure after being forced to ditch a controversial plan to sell a 20 per cent stake in Fifa tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors. The backlash has been severe, and it has not come from the fringes of the game.
Uefa led the revolt, openly calling for Infantino to resign and even threatening to boycott Fifa competitions. Several European associations have already withdrawn their backing for his re-election. Resistance has also hardened beyond Europe, with opposition emerging from the Asian confederation and Concacaf, which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean.
With his position weakened, Infantino has tried to seize back the initiative.
On Monday evening he sent a letter to all 211 member associations and Fifa Council members, setting out what he framed as a reform agenda. In it, according to reports, he proposed an “independent external review of Fifa’s current governance framework” and insisted his attempted sell-off had never put “Fifa’s democratic processes, independence and sporting authority” up for sale.
The timing was impossible to ignore. Nor did Bernd Neuendorf, the DFB president, try to.
“I regard Gianni Infantino’s letter as a transparent ploy to secure his re-election next year,” Neuendorf said on Tuesday, cutting through any diplomatic niceties.
For Neuendorf, the issue is not whether Fifa needs to change. It is who is allowed to lead that change.
“Fundamentally, Fifa now seems to have recognised that changes are essential. However, Gianni Infantino is definitely not the right person to lead a reform process. He has squandered all credibility.”
Germany’s stance did not materialise overnight. The DFB has been distancing itself from Infantino for months, long before the latest storm around the World Cup and the investment scheme erupted.
“The DFB has not signed a letter of support for the re-election of Gianni Infantino,” the federation declared back in July. “Further steps will be discussed in the DFB presidential board.”
The message from Germany has only hardened since then. Trust, they say, has gone.
Oliver Bierhoff, the former Germany national team director, captured that mood bluntly.
“We have to take care of football,” he said. “It is already commercial but it is a property for all of football. The world views may be different but in the last weeks and months a lot happened so that we have no trust any more that it will be going in the right direction.”
That is the crux of it. Infantino is now talking about governance reviews and reform processes, but some of the most powerful voices in the game no longer believe he can be the one to deliver them.
The Fifa presidential election in March 2027 is already looming over every move. Neuendorf has called out what he sees: a president fighting to survive, not a reformer ready to start again.
