As pressure mounts on FIFA, these names are emerging as possible successors to Gianni Infantino

After scrapping FIFA’s controversial, widely-criticized plan to sell stakes in tournaments to outside investors, Gianni Infantino’s position as president of soccer’s global governing body is coming under immense pressure.

“No option should be off the table”

In a statement released on Saturday, UEFA, European soccer’s ruling authority, stopped short of explicitly calling for Infantino to resign, but said: “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”

UEFA also declared: “No option should be off the table.”

And, according to a report in The Telegraph, the European body’s 55 member associations have told Infantino that they will trigger a vote of no confidence in the president if he does not step aside.

Meanwhile, CONCACAF, which runs soccer in Central and North America and the Caribbean, said in a Saturday statement that a “comprehensive reckoning with this presidency” is needed.

“This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour,” CONCACAF said.

On Friday, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said it stood “in solidarity” with UEFA and CONCACAF’s rejection of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project, whose abandonment was confirmed hours later. The FFE debacle “has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA’s consultation and decision-making processes”, the AFC complained.

“Not a normal organisation”

Speaking to the BBC, David Bernstein, the former chairman of the English Football Association, said the head of an organization would typically be left in an untenable position after a climbdown as significant and embarrassing as Infantino’s. However, Bernstein also cautioned that FIFA is far from a typical institution.

“In a normal organisation, if he has to back down due to something of this magnitude he’d probably be shown the door,” Bernstein said. “But FIFA is not a normal organisation. If he has the support of enough of the national associations, he will continue.”

How could Infantino be ousted?

If Infantino does not leave his post voluntarily, a no-confidence vote in the president can be called at the request of at least one-fifth of FIFA’s 211 member associations. Given UEFA’s size, it has comfortably enough members to force such a vote on its own.

For a motion of no confidence to succeed in removing Infantino from office, FIFA’s statutes appear to say that a simple majority - more than 50% of the votes cast - would be needed.

Currently, speculators on the prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi believe there’s now a roughly 40% chance that the FIFA chief will gone by the end of the year. But if 2026 does not bring an Infantino resignation or a successful no-confidence vote, there would be an opportunity to force the Swiss administrator out early next year, when FIFA is due to hold its latest presidential election.

So far, only Infantino has declared his intention to run at March’s 77th FIFA Congress, held in Morocco. First elected as president in 2016, the Swiss administrator would be seeking a third full term, which would definitely be his last. Under FIFA rules, presidents cannot seek a fourth full term.

Any prospective challenger to Infantino, who has so far twice been re-elected unopposed, has until November 18 to officially submit their candidacy. According to the governing body’s statutes, a candidate needs a simple majority to win FIFA’s presidential election.

Who is being tipped as a potential Infantino replacement?

One major potential contender is the president of one of FFE’s leading detractors: CONCACAF chief Victor Montagliani. Both as CONCACAF president, and in his previous post as head of the Canada Football Association, Montagliani was a pivotal figure in securing the hosting rights for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

In recent days, it has been reported that the 60-year-old Canadian is “making moves” towards a bid for the FIFA presidency.

Meanwhile, AFC chief Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa has previously sought the FIFA presidency, losing out to Infantino in 2016’s election. The Bahraini, who has headed up Asian soccer since 2013, has blasted FIFA’s approach to the announcement of its FFE proposal as “totally unacceptable”.

In Europe, the highly influential president of Paris Saint-Germain, the back-to-back Champions League holders, is widely reported to be UEFA officials’ choice to take the helm at FIFA. PSG chief since 2011, the Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi is also the chairman of European Football Clubs (EFC), a body that represents more than 800 of the continent’s soccer teams.

Although Qatar’s soccer federation has publicly stated its support for Infantino in the wake of FFE’s cancellation, Al Khelaifi is said not to be aligned with the statement released by his home country this weekend. In a communiqué issued before FFE was scrapped, EFC spoke of its “serious concern” at not being consulted over the project.

However, a source close to Al-Khelaifi, 52, has insisted to the BBC that he “genuinely, genuinely, genuinely doesn’t want” to take over as FIFA president.

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