The Swiss Football Association –SFV- has withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino’s bid for another term as president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association -FIFA-. The association announced the decision on Wednesday, although its Central Committee had taken it at a meeting on September 25. The same body endorsed Infantino’s candidacy in June; three months later, it has formally reversed that position.
The SFV said it had reassessed developments over recent months. In its view, several events raise fundamental questions about FIFA’s leadership, governance, transparency and decision-making. It identified two matters in particular: clarity of the rules and competitive integrity in the Balogun case, and the involvement and responsibilities of FIFA’s governing bodies in the FIFA Forward Enterprise -FFE- project.
Balogun and FIFA Forward Enterprise
Folarin Balogun was sent off in the United States’ match against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2026 World Cup. The red card carried an automatic suspension for the next match, but FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee suspended its enforcement for a one-year probationary period under Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code. Balogun was therefore available for the round-of-16 match against Belgium. The Swiss association does not say in its statement that wrongdoing in the decision has been established. It is seeking clarity about the rules applied and the safeguards protecting the integrity of the competition.
FFE was a proposal to transfer FIFA’s commercial and event operations to a subsidiary that, according to FIFA, would have remained under its ownership and control. The project envisaged additional funding for member associations, part of it backed by external investment. FIFA said the proposal would be subject to consultation and would not proceed without majority support from its members. On July 31, Infantino announced that it would be dropped because of the divisions it had created. The SFV’s questions concern the process: what role the bodies with authority under FIFA’s statutes played, and how responsibility was exercised over a proposal of that scale.
Why Switzerland reversed its June endorsement
For the Swiss Central Committee, credibility, transparency, accountability and the effective involvement of the relevant governing bodies are necessary conditions for trust in FIFA’s leadership. SFV president Peter Knäbel said important questions remain unanswered about the background to the two matters, the responsibilities involved and the decisions taken. “As these have not been convincingly clarified, we cannot justify continuing to support Gianni Infantino’s candidacy,” he said. The SFV thus identifies those unresolved questions as the reason for changing its position since June.
Knäbel acknowledged that the steps set out by FIFA in a September 21 letter to its member associations were “an important signal” and could lead to improvements. Infantino has proposed asking the FIFA Council whether it wishes to commission an independent external review of the governance framework for major strategic initiatives, alongside consultations on decision-making. The SFV says those steps have yet to resolve its questions. It also stressed that withdrawing electoral support does not mean ending its cooperation with FIFA. As the association of the country where both FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations -UEFA- are based, it said it recognises a particular responsibility in this area.
FIFA Council to consider a governance review
The Swiss decision comes as other football organisations call for changes to FIFA’s governance. On September 25, the Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A jointly called for greater stakeholder involvement in decisions and a clearer separation of FIFA’s commercial and regulatory functions. Their statement also referred to FFE. The SFV has based its own decision on the questions set out in its statement and has not linked its withdrawal of support to an alternative candidate.
The next institutional step is the FIFA Council meeting on October 15. Infantino has proposed that the Council consider commissioning the external review and establishing a structured consultation with confederations, member associations and other football stakeholders. The review has not yet been approved, and its scope remains to be determined. The proposal made public concerns the governance framework for major strategic initiatives; it does not explicitly state that the specific decisions involving Balogun and FFE will be examined.
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