Former FIFA governance chief warns 'climate of fear' could shield Infantino from eligibility challenge

Miguel Maduro, the former chair of FIFA’s governance committee, has warned that a pervasive climate of fear inside world football’s governing body is likely to prevent national associations from formally challenging Gianni Infantino’s right to stand for a fourth presidential term at the March election.

Maduro, a Portuguese legal scholar appointed by Infantino in 2016 as part of post-Blatter reform pledges, argues that FIFA’s statutes contain a clear three-term limit on the presidency and that associations have both the standing and the obligation to invoke it. Instead, he says, most are choosing silence.

“The fact that they are not challenging Infantino’s eligibility tells us a lot of the extent to which the climate is one of fear,” Maduro said. “We’ve seen that whoever acts on their own and challenges and shows a dissenting voice, or shows even that they have an opinion of their own, gets ostracised, gets set aside, loses influence in the framework of power of FIFA.”

Maduro was dismissed by Infantino in 2017 after objecting to the appointment of Russia’s Vitaly Mutko to the FIFA Council. He has since helped campaign group FairSquare draft a letter to FIFA’s governance, audit and compliance committee questioning Infantino’s eligibility, and is now backing a broader push urging associations to declare the incumbent ineligible.

Infantino’s position looked precarious during the summer when details emerged of a private investor plan for the World Cup that had been developed without the knowledge of the FIFA Council or member associations. He has since consolidated support, drawing backing from the majority of associations across Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America.

FIFA argued in 2022 that a FIFA Council decision taken just before the World Cup final had effectively discounted Infantino’s initial three-year term, leaving him eligible to stand again in 2027. Critics, including Maduro, reject that interpretation as a post-hoc rewriting of the rules.

The question of European associations challenging Infantino is complicated by their own recent conduct. UEFA members agreed a statute change in 2024 that allowed president Aleksander Ceferin to stand for re-election — a move Maduro acknowledged was “a very negative change” but one that was at least formally enacted. “In this case [FIFA], it is in the rules,” he said, drawing a clear distinction.

Adding to concerns about the process, the committee charged with ruling on Infantino’s eligibility is chaired by Bruno Chiomento, who has known Infantino for more than 20 years. European members of the FIFA Council have asked FIFA to consider recusing Chiomento and appointing a replacement, though no decision on that request has been reported.