France withdraws support for Infantino as Fifa re-election campaign loses more ground

The French Football Federation (FFF) has formally withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino’s campaign to be re-elected as Fifa president, dealing the Swiss official another significant blow ahead of the March 2027 election.

France joins England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in pulling their endorsement, a collective European rebuke that reflects deepening unease over how Infantino has run world football’s governing body.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the FFF said the conditions under which it had originally backed Infantino — at the time the sole declared candidate — were “no longer met.” The federation cited “a series of events directly involving Fifa’s governance and its president, and in direct conflict with the fundamental principles of good governance and the values of football” as having occurred after it first expressed support on 29 June.

The immediate trigger for the wider European backlash was Infantino’s proposal to bring private investors into a venture overseeing Fifa’s tournaments — a plan ultimately scrapped after three continental confederations rejected it. The FFF acknowledged the project had been “definitively abandoned thanks to a concerted response within Uefa in conjunction with several other confederations,” but argued that the underlying governance questions remained unresolved.

“It is against this backdrop — where the Fifa president’s recent initiatives have seriously damaged the image and unity of football — that the FFF has decided to withdraw its support for Gianni Infantino ahead of the Fifa presidential election in March 2027,” the statement read.

Despite weeks of mounting criticism, Infantino has not stepped back from his re-election ambitions. A Fifa spokesperson confirmed last Sunday that he intends to stand again. He remains the only declared candidate.

Uefa has pledged to put forward a “credible” alternative candidate for member associations to consider before the 18 November submission deadline, though no name has yet been announced.

The FFF also used its statement to call for “far-reaching reform” of global football governance, saying it would open discussions with key French and international figures about the way forward.