FIFA’s Infantino Ineligible for Re-election — Former Governance Chief

November 6, 2026

2 minutes read

Gianni Infantino cannot stand for a fourth term as FIFA president in 2027 under the body’s statutes, according to Miguel Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s Governance Committee, as the head of world football’s governing body seeks re-election.

“Article 33, paragraph two of the FIFA Statutes is very clear when it says no person may serve as president for more than three terms,” Maduro told reporters this week.

“Gianni Infantino has been elected three times; he’s been president of FIFA for three terms. So, in my view, there’s no way to reconcile another presidency of Infantino.”

Maduro’s comments came two weeks before FIFA’s deadline for submitting candidacies for the presidential election in March 2027.

With the deadline approaching, human rights organisation FairSquare has written to member associations, urging them to declare Infantino ineligible.

FairSquare had previously urged FIFA to rule that Infantino was ineligible to seek another term as president, arguing that he had already served the maximum three terms permitted under the body’s statutes.

However, Infantino successfully argued that his first spell in charge, following his election at an Extraordinary Congress in 2016 after Sepp Blatter’s resignation, should not count towards the limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.

In December 2022, the FIFA Council “unanimously confirmed” that the period between 2016 and 2019 did not count as a term of office for Infantino. However, FairSquare said the reasoning behind the decision had never been made public.

Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer, was removed from his post at FIFA in 2017 after he blocked Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko from being re-elected to its top committee.

He said the wording of the rule made no exception for a shortened term.

“The text of the provision is clear; it talks about three terms. It makes no distinction on whether these terms are complete terms or incomplete terms, four-year terms or terms that may be shorter than the four years,” Maduro said.

Infantino’s re-election prospects were strengthened significantly last month after the head of Asian football endorsed his bid. Support across the confederations also gives him a commanding position among FIFA’s 211 voting members.

Maduro said FIFA’s governance framework was unable to hold its president accountable, particularly when he stood to benefit from interpretations of the rules. He argued that existing checks and balances on presidential power had failed.

“That has a lot to do with the weakening of the independence of the bodies that are supposed to control the powers of the president and the political leadership of FIFA,” he explained.

“Unfortunately, the recent evidence that we’ve had is not one of effective control. On the contrary, it is one where the president seems to be free to decide and to do whatever he wants.”

FairSquare said it had contacted 52 member associations. Although none had yet responded to the call, its director and co-founder, Nicholas McGeehan, told the Reuters news agency that the organisation would be meeting Norwegian football officials on Wednesday.

Norway’s Football Association (NFF) had previously backed FairSquare’s official complaint against Infantino over an alleged breach of political neutrality rules.

“Given that the NFF have already engaged the Ethics Committee and the Governance Committee, we are hopeful they will set an example on this case too,” McGeehan said.

“But other associations also need to step up; it can’t always be left to the Norwegians to insist on basic rules.”

Maduro said member associations had been reluctant to act independently because of what he described as a “climate of fear”. Aljazeera

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