Infantino Under Siege: Who Could Challenge Him in the 2027 Elections?
A scrapped controversial proposal and growing discontent within UEFA have opened the door to the first serious contest for the top job in world football since 2016.
A scrapped controversial proposal and growing discontent within UEFA have opened the door to the first serious contest for the top job in world football since 2016.
It seemed that Gianni Infantino would sail through the 2027 elections unopposed, just as he did in 2019 and 2023. However, the crisis sparked by his abandoned "FIFA Forward Enterprise" proposal has now created a real possibility of the first contested election for the leadership of world football in a decade.
Infantino confirmed his candidacy for another term back in April 2026 at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver. Despite the FIFA top brass publicly backing him at an emergency meeting in Rabat on Wednesday, confidence among key confederations has been severely shaken.
UEFA has made it clear that it no longer has confidence in Infantino's leadership. In a statement to Sky News, UEFA said that "conditions have not been met" for lifting the World Cup boycott and that there remains a lack of trust in the current president.
Discontent is spreading to national associations as well. The Welsh, Swedish, and Serbian football associations have already withdrawn their earlier support, and the English Football Association is expected to follow suit soon.
According to FIFA rules, a candidate must have been active in football for at least two of the five years prior to the election, either as a player, coach, or official. To enter the race, a candidate must gather written support from at least five of FIFA's 211 member associations. The deadline for submitting candidacies is November 18, 2026, exactly four months before the vote.
The vote itself will take place at the 77th FIFA Congress in Rabat on March 18, 2027. When there are multiple candidates, voting is by secret ballot. A two-thirds majority is required to win in the first round. If no one achieves that, a simple majority of more than 50 percent of the votes is sufficient in subsequent rounds. If all 211 members vote, the winner needs 106 votes.
In 2016, Infantino won in the second round with 115 votes, while his opponent, Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, received 88 votes.
Although no one has officially announced a candidacy yet, several names are being mentioned as possible contenders. The most concrete is Victor Montagliani, president of CONCACAF and FIFA vice president. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has publicly described him as a respected football official.
Alongside Montagliani, the media has speculated about UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and Norwegian Football Federation President Lise Klaveness. UEFA Vice President Laura McAllister emphasized that a successful candidate would need to unite the football world and gain support beyond Europe, which is crucial given that every member association has an equal vote.
Infantino still enjoys significant support among smaller federations in Africa and Asia, where FIFA's development programs provide crucial funding. However, opponents also have the option to call for an Extraordinary Congress before March next year, for which they would need the support of 43 member associations, or one-fifth of the membership.
