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Fans say Infantino has ‘lost the right to lead’Statement also calls for Fifa to be reformedFans’ groups worldwide have launched a petition calling for the resignation of Gianni Infantino as Fifa president and for wholesale reform of the organisation.Infantino is under mounting pressure after being forced to abandon plans to seek private investment to run Fifa tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups.Three continental confederations accused Infantino of “deception” in an open letter last week over the manner the plan was devised and presented, with Uefa, European football’s governing body, intent on boycotting Fifa events having “lost confidence” in Infantino’s leadership.Infantino retains support, notably in Africa and South America, but now fans’ organisations have called on him to step down, with a petition being launched on change.org.“The shameful attempt by one individual – the Fifa president himself – to sell off the World Cup to private investors exposed a betrayal football will never forget,” a statement on behalf of the fan organisations said. “Infantino’s plan was stitched together in secret. Negotiated behind closed doors. Hidden from Fifa’s own members and from the millions of people whose passion makes football what it is.”Fans are being encouraged to sign the petition, which already has support from all six Fifa confederations spanning continental and national fan groups. “A president who repeatedly betrays football and makes a mockery of our game has lost the right to lead it,” the statement continued. “For the credibility of Fifa – and for the future of the game – he must resign.”The petition also calls for reform of Fifa, including the formal involvement of supporters and other key football stakeholders in decisions that shape the future of the game.“The departure of Gianni Infantino is a first and a must, but that can only have a positive impact if it’s followed by some reform of the office and of governance,” said Ronan Evain, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, which is a signatory to the petition. “If a man can concentrate so many powers then the governance of Fifa is not fit for purpose.“[Fifa] needs to start from scratch. All the reforms from 2016 have been erased or made irrelevant by Infantino. We need to be as open-minded as possible on the future of football governance and there are other models outside football, outside sport, that need to be looked into – the idea of rotating presidencies seems interesting.”

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Hungary’s Sandor Csanyi highly critical of Fifa presidentHe cites dismissal of COO Kevin Lamour as ‘final straw’Gianni Infantino has lost the support of another one of Fifa’s vice-presidents, with the Hungarian football federation chief, Sandor Csanyi, criticising the president’s “professional judgment, ethical standards and leadership”.In an explosive letter sent to Infantino on Tuesday, which was first obtained by the news agency Agence France-Presse, Csanyi states that he has “lost the confidence I previously placed in you” and describes the “unexpected dismissal” of Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, as the “final straw”.Lamour was sacked by Fifa on Monday after breaking ranks last month by criticising Infantino over his aborted plan to sell off shares in the World Cup to private investors.Csanyi’s letter continues the trend of senior global football figures deserting Infantino, with the Hungarian banker the fifth of Fifa’s eight vice-presidents to call for him to stand down.The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, Victor Montagliani of Concacaf – the North and Central American and Caribbean Confederation – and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa of the Asian Football Confederation have all made their positions clear, as has the Football Association chair, Debbie Hewitt.Of the Fifa vice-presidents, only Alejandro Domínguez of South America’s Conmebol, Patrick Motsepe of the Confederation of African Football and Oceania’s Lambert Maltock are supporting Infantino.Csanyi is also a member of the 37-strong Fifa council, which is theoretically its main decision-making body, but has been repeatedly overlooked by Infantino.“My conviction that you are capable of continuing to lead Fifa successfully and effectively in accordance with the shared values that previously formed the basis of our cooperation has been undermined,” Csanyi wrote. “The final straw was the unexpected dismissal of Kevin Lamour.”The letter also cited “a number of controversial decisions” at this year’s World Cup, including Infantino’s involvement in “plans to outsource Fifa competitions and place them in the hands of external parties”.

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Steven Rosen’s company liquidated after high court hearingPrevious owner claims it is owed fees from 2024 saleThe Sheffield United co-chair, Steven Rosen, is facing disqualification as a director by the English Football League after the company through which he bought the club two years ago, COH Sports Bidco Limited, was liquidated.The winding-up order issued by the high court in London is the result of a dispute between United’s owners and their predecessor, Prince Abdullah’s United World, which claims it is owed £35m by Rosen and his business partner Helmy Eltoukhy in unpaid fees resulting from the £110m sale of the Championship club in December 2024.Abdullah filed the winding-up petition last month after Rosen and Eltoukhy transferred ownership of the club to a new parent company, 1919 Partners LLC, which he alleged was part of an attempt to avoid paying the outstanding debt.1919 Partners concede £35m is outstanding to United World, but insist the debt is not behind the restructure. A spokesperson declined to comment after Wednesday’s hearing.“Sheffield United Football Club is aware of today’s hearing at the high court,” read a club statement. “This is a matter between the current owners and former owner.”Nevertheless, there could be ramifications for United. Under EFL regulations, any club official who is the subject of two insolvency events is prevented from acting as a controlling owner or director. In 2023, Rosen was a director of a US medical manufacturer, Invacare, that filed for bankruptcy, so he could be forced by the EFL to stand down and reduce his shareholding in United.The EFL is also likely to launch a formal investigation into the allegations that the club’s owners are deliberately seeking to avoid paying fees owed from their purchase of the club, which would result in a points deduction if they are found guilty. EFL sources with knowledge of its rule book confirmed that an insolvency overseas would count as a disqualification event.“The EFL notes the high court’s decision to issue a winding-up order on COH Sports Bidco Limited,” a spokesperson said. “The league will consider the implications of that development in line with its regulations, including whether any further action is required.“In addition, the EFL continues to consider other regulatory matters following changes to the club’s ownership structure and developments within the wider group. As these issues remain ongoing, the EFL will make no further comment at this stage.”United World claimed the club’s owners have refused repeated requests to reach a mediated settlement. “United World made every effort to resolve this matter amicably and tried until the morning of the hearing to give the owners a final opportunity to find a solution and spare Sheffield United the consequences of their conduct,” read a statement. “That approach, like everyone before it, received no response.“It appears that Helmy Eltoukhy and Steven Rosen are simply not concerned about what this means for the club. What happens to Sheffield United now is the result of their choices.”

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IFA points to ‘unprecedented crisis of confidence’‘Proper vision and direction for world football’ requiredGianni Infantino’s decision to sack his chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, after the Frenchman’s criticism of the World Cup sell-off plan has hardened some opposition to the Fifa president, with the efforts to force him out expected to intensify over the next few days.On Tuesday Israel became the latest Fifa member to officially withdraw their support for Infantino’s re-election in a letter sent by the head of the Israel Football Association (IFA), Moshe Zuares.The move is not a surprise as the IFA has been a member of Uefa since 1994 and Zuares sits on the European governing body’s executive committee, but it remains another blow to Infantino, who has invested significant political capital in attempting to improve sporting relations with Palestine.At Fifa’s congress in April Infantino tried to stage a photo involving the two delegations in Vancouver, but the Palestinian Football Federation president, Jibril Rajoub, refused to stand alongside IFA ⁠vice-president, Basim Sheikh ⁠Suliman. Undeterred by this setback, Infantino wants Israel and Palestine to compete in the first match of a new under-15 tournament in the United States next month, as reported by the Guardian in June.In his letter, which has been seen by the Guardian, Zuares says recent events have triggered an “unprecedented crisis of confidence” between the visions of Uefa and Fifa when it comes to global governance, adding that the rift is “profound, substantive, and principled, and compelling all stakeholders to reconsider the path forward”.In a decision he described as being taken unanimously after a meeting of the IFA’s board, Zuares confirmed: “We have no choice but to retract our previous letter of support, in the sincere hope that fruitful dialogue among all parties will eventually restore a shared, proper vision and direction for world football.”Israeli’s intervention echoes the withdrawal of support from other Uefa members including England, Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, and followed confirmation on Monday night that Lamour had left Fifa, having been deeply critical of Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.“If that means I lose my job, then so be it,” he said prophetically in a statement on 31 July. “I will understand and respect that decision. At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”Another Uefa executive committee member, the former Wales Women international Laura McAllister, said the decision to sack Lamour “sends a deeply troubling message” and casts serious doubt over any efforts by the global governing body to recalibrate after the FFE scandal.McAllister, who is one of five Uefa vice-presidents and worked there with Lamour before his move to Fifa in 2024, praised her former colleague for standing up to Infantino’s doomed scheme. “During the shabby events of the past weeks, he showed himself to be a courageous advocate for the most important stakeholders in football,” she said in a statement. “Kevin’s sacking seriously weakens Fifa’s administration, while undermining this unique opportunity to shift the culture at Fifa and to reset the organisation on sporting values, not simply commercial and financial ones.“Fifa is not the president, it is the whole football family. As I have said repeatedly, world football needs strong, principled, independent leaders who are prepared to speak up, challenge when necessary, and stand firmly by their values and those of the global game. Instead, the loss of a leader of Kevin’s calibre sends a deeply troubling message to all of us seeking change.”

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Despite another reset with a new manager and fresh strategy, the boardroom drama persists at Stamford BridgePerhaps, in hindsight, it was always going to end this way. As some of the world’s wealthiest investors scrambled to find funds after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine set a series of dominoes toppling that forced Roman Abramovich to sell Chelsea, it threw together some unexpected allies.Todd Boehly became the public face of the winning bid, convincing the US sports mogul Mark Walter and the Swiss businessman Hansjörg Wyss to join as 12.8% minority investors. The private equity firm Clearlake Capital put in 61.6%, bringing the owners Behdad Eghbali and José E Feliciano, who made their fortunes investing in tech, into the leadership fold.But once the adrenaline rush of beating 11 serious rivals in an expedited bid process run by the Raine Group had worn off, that was really when the problems started. Now they actually owned Chelsea, how were they going to run it? What was the strategy? How would they tackle a stadium falling well behind their rivals?Maybe Abramovich made running Chelsea look easier than it was. The club had not finished outside the top five for six seasons, yet in the four seasons since the takeover, their average league position is eighth – with a high of fourth and a low of 12th. Possibly the conflicting opinions of people who always think they are right, and have the money to prove it, is not the optimal setup.Before the takeover, an agreement was struck that Boehly, representing Walter and Wyss, would have final signoff on major decisions alongside Eghbali and Feliciano. Over the years, Boehly and Eghbali have been the dominant day-to-day decision-makers at the club, while the others remained largely silent partners, insulated from the fan anger and social media ridicule that inevitably follows any period of struggle.Some sources maintain that Boehly and Eghbali share a “professional” relationship, but signs of strain had leaked into the public domain long before this week’s revelation that Boehly and Walter were open to selling their stakes to Clearlake in a deal that would value the club at about £5bn.In May 2024 Boehly told the Qatar Economic Forum that “patience” with the project was essential. Mauricio Pochettino had just led Chelsea to the EFL Cup final, the FA Cup semi-final and they had recovered from a poor start to finish sixth. Cole Palmer was a breakout star; Reece James was made captain. They won their last five games of the season.Six days later, Pochettino was gone – dismissed after the co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart compiled an 18-page review of the season.Another glimpse of the pervading tension – and possibly a hint at what was to come – emerged in March last year in Boehly’s Bloomberg interview discussing the slow-moving stadium development plans, four years after they were announced.“We have to think long term about what we’re trying to accomplish,” Boehly said. “We have a big stadium development opportunity that we have to flesh out. That’s going to be where we’re either aligned or we ultimately decide to go different ways.”Publicly, Boehly insisted the ownership was aligned. Yet that is also at odds with how it began: the American installing himself as sporting director and driving a £250m spending spree targeting experienced players such as Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Chelsea finished 12th.Boehly then stepped back, with Eghbali taking a more active role. About 70 interviews took place to build a new football structure, resulting in the appointments of Winstanley and Stewart – later promoted to co-sporting directors – and Joe Shields, now a co-director of recruitment.They attempted to redefine how a football club is run: buying young, handing out unusually long contracts, in a model that has fascinated and baffled many in football. As an indication of how well that’s gone, in 2024 fans placed stickers around Stamford Bridge mocking up the three owners as clowns, while the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust described their club as “a laughing stock”.The spending has been unprecedented – the pre-tax loss of £262.4m in the year ending June 2025 was a Premier League record supporters had probably not envisaged after Boehly declared the owners’ vision was “to make the fans proud” after the takeover. They have complied with Premier League spending restrictions only by effectively selling the women’s side to themselves. But it could not stop a significant fine for breaching Uefa’s financial rules, which did not permit the club to include the sale as income.But there have been signs that the grand plan(s) will work. Momentum grew under Enzo Maresca Chelsea qualified for the Champions League and lifted the Club World Cup, and there was frustration that last season was derailed by his abrupt departure in January, after which they plummeted from Champions League contenders to 10th.Now comes another reset under Xabi Alonso and a new strategy tweak towards older, more tried and tested players. But the boardroom drama persists. Both sides have explored buying each other out in recent years, but it appears Boehly’s and Walter’s hands have been forced. Walter, a long-term friend and business partner of Boehly, is under investigation by the US Department of Justice for alleged tax fraud and is believed to be selling assets to pay loans facing federal attention. He unexpectedly sold the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5bn (£9.2bn) last week and his Chelsea stake could be next.An exit would coincide neatly with Boehly’s five-year tenure as Chelsea chair coming to an end at the conclusion of this season and a representative from Clearlake ready to fill his place. If a sale is agreed, Eghbali and Feliciano will have full control – and no one else to blame if things don’t improve.

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Mosengo-Omba says Fifa’s congress backs InfantinoFecofa president admits he did not support sell-off planOne of Gianni Infantino’s closest allies has said he would “take a bullet” for the Fifa president and is confident that he still has the overwhelming support of its all-powerful congress despite mounting pressure.But Véron Mosengo-Omba, who served as Fifa’s chief member associations officer until 2021 and is now president of the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa), also criticised Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme that wanted to sell off more than 20% of the World Cup to private investors.Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation have been increasing their efforts to oust Infantino since publishing an open letter calling for “leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it”.That came after Fifa had accused Infantino’s opponents of launching a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president”. The Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, was sacked on Monday after criticising Infantino’s ill-fated plan.As reported by the Guardian, Uefa has been seeking support from other confederations to call an emergency Fifa congress to trigger a vote of no confidence in Infantino, although there are serious doubts whether they have enough support to reach the threshold of 106 of the 211 Fifa members required to unseat him.Mosengo-Omba – a close friend of Infantino’s from their university days in Switzerland, who was elected unopposed as Fecofa president in May – has admitted that he was against the controversial plan but backed Infantino to stay on as president. “Most of the federations are supporting him. Just ask the congress,” he told the Guardian. “I didn’t send a letter of support [for Infantino] because I didn’t agree with the way the project was done. Now people are trying to attack Gianni but I’m ready to take a bullet for him.”Mosengo-Omba added: “Gianni came with a proposal. Uefa is selling the Champions League and the Euros – they are independent companies. He was doing the same. Gianni came with a similar proposal but now he has withdrawn it. So what’s the problem? What I didn’t like and where I think Gianni committed a mistake was the way it was done. Because the risk was it could have seen a lot of [private] companies organising the World Cup. That is my reproach to him.”In partnership with the US bank JP Morgan, Infantino had planned for FFE to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling 21% of the World Cup’s commercial rights to investors, with promises of an increase in distribution of “over $10bn” (£7.5bn) then being redistributed back to Fifa’s 211 member associations.Mosengo-Omba, who stepped down as general secretary of the Confederation of African Football in March after reaching the age limit, said that while the initial plan had been soundly rejected he is weighing up whether to propose another scheme that would see each confederation being offered the chance to buy a stake in the World Cup in order to generate more revenue for its members.“Gianni’s project was good. I would buy it but make some changes,” he said. “You could, for example, say that a confederation can buy 20%. We could do that. That’s my idea – I could come with the proposal in the next congress, maybe. Because I need money to develop football in the Congo. The people here have nothing. We would get $20m a year if this happened and that can have a big impact in my country.”

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Kevin Lamour said Fifa administration was ‘deceived’Chief operating officer knew he could lose his jobThe Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has been sacked after openly criticising Gianni Infantino’s ill-fated plan to sell parts of the World Cup to private investors.In a significant development at the pinnacle of world football’s deeply troubled governing body, Lamour has departed less than two years after joining from a previous role at Uefa. He had come out strongly against Infantino’s FFE scheme after it was revealed, saying Fifa’s administration had been “deceived” and that the president “believes he embodies Fifa when he is supposed to be at its service”.Lamour had also made clear that he would countenance losing his job as a consequence of opposing the plan, which was shelved hours after he spoke out on 31 July. “If that means I lose my job, then so be it,” he said in a statement. “I will understand and respect that decision. At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”The precise circumstances of his sacking are unclear but the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström, informed staff in an email that Lamour would be leaving the organisation.A Fifa spokesperson said: “Fifa can confirm that the working relationship between Fifa and Kevin Lamour as Fifa’s chief operating officer has ended on 17 August 2026. Fifa thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future. No further comment will be made on the matter.”In the statement that appears to have expedited his departure, Lamour also said his colleagues “deserve better than contempt and intimidation”. He added: “My feeling is that we all want to be proud to work for Fifa, and today, unfortunately, it seems that is no longer the case for many of us.” On the same day one of Infantino’s senior advisers, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned in protest at Infantino’s proposals.Lamour had been Uefa’s deputy secretary general before joining Fifa, and had first joined the European body in 2007. His departure is all the more eye-catching for his longstanding working relationship with Infantino, with whom he also worked at Uefa. Infantino continues to be under huge pressure after the failure of his scheme, with efforts to force his removal continuing.

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Women’s football has much to gain from the kind of reforms that threats to snub upcoming tournaments might prompt. Infantino should be taken on“And I say to all the women … Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights. You have the power to change. You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it. Just do it. With men, with Fifa, you will find open doors. Just push the doors. They are open.”Those were the condescending words of Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, three years ago during a tone-deaf speech in Sydney, which left his audience, including some of the most senior women in the game, exasperated. It is a damning indictment of Infantino’s tenure that his patronising monologue on the eve of the Women’s World Cup final now barely even creeps into the top 10 of the most controversial moments since his latest re-election, in March 2023.Yet, with the Swiss administrator’s future hanging finely in the balance, the power to enforce once-in-a-generation change at Fifa may well be in the hands of women’s teams after all, as the threat of a boycott lingers over September’s Women’s Under-20 World Cup, the Women’s Under-17 World Cup, which gets under way in October, and that month’s senior World Cup playoff ties for next summer’s major showpiece, the Women’s World Cup in Brazil.This week Lisa Nandy told the BBC that Infantino “should go” and, overall, the culture secretary spoke well on the matter, but she added that she would not support a boycott of the U20 World Cup and said she was “not generally in favour of sporting boycotts full stop – because they unfairly penalise athletes and competitors who are not responsible for the reason that these boycotts take place”. On that specific element, it is important to respectfully disagree with Nandy and the many others who share that view.Yes, it would feel deeply unjust for football’s political turmoil to have an adverse impact on the development of the world’s best young women footballers through no fault of their own, but that is why any participating countries being prepared to boycott the upcoming under-20 tournament would send such a powerful message.It is tempting to follow the stance that many working within the women’s game are taking privately, which is that it would be a travesty if women’s football, having been neglected and let down by the authorities for generations, was harmed again by disruption to such a significant tournament, but the painful reality is that the young generation of women’s stars stand to be most affected by the decisions that are made by governing bodies in the days, weeks and months ahead.And yes, is it unfair for women’s teams, and young women’s teams in particular, to shoulder the responsibility of taking a stance against the now-scrapped vision of selling off a stake in Fifa tournaments – which, we should remember, would include all Fifa’s women’s tournaments too – through the murky concept of the Fifa Forward Enterprise subsidiary, but it is their futures, and the organisation of the World Cups finals that will come to define their careers, which are at stake.And the future of the governance of the sport, and decisions about who runs the game, is a debate that women’s football players, coaches and fans all deserve a much more vocal say in, on far more deep-rooted injustices than those that have dominated the news in recent weeks.Is it fair that, for example, there are only two women – Paola López of Mexico and Vietnam’s Thi My Dung Nguyen – among the 18 members of Fifa’s disciplinary committee, which hit the headlines amid the farcical Folarin Balogun scandal this summer? Or that all 10 of the members of Fifa’s Future of Football committee are men?Is it fair that, of the 37 members of Fifa’s council, the organisation’s strategic and oversight body, 29 are men and only eight are women? Or that seven of the eight vice-presidents are men?Is it fair that the 2023 Women’s World Cup prize money totalled $110m and this summer’s men’s World Cup’s prize pot was around eight times larger, at a record-breaking $871m?It would be wrong to say that there have not been positive improvements in women’s football across the world since Infantino took office in 2016. The past decade has included long overdue, albeit still very important and welcome, enhancements to provisions for players and coaches at women’s tournaments, a sizeable growth in financial investment and huge uplift in prize money, albeit from a very low bar. It is also fair to say that there are many key figures in the women’s game, across all continents, who support Infantino and are appreciative of the gradual improvements that are being made, while acknowledging that there is still a very long way to go.But everyone associated with women’s football should be concerned that the 25-page sales pitch that was titled Fifa Forward Enterprise Member Materials contained only one token reference to women’s football. It is why the England defender Lucy Bronze was right to use her voice to say she backed a boycott “for the good of the game”.On Friday morning, the latest twist in Infantino’s future delivered both positives and negatives for the under-fire president, as on the one hand, the Oceania Football Confederation declared its support for Infantino, while the confederation’s biggest member, New Zealand, withdrew its backing for him. New Zealand, impeccable co-hosts of the most recent Women’s World Cup, will have had plenty of reasons to support Infantino but has chosen to use its platform to call for “stronger governance, accountability and transparency”.Shortly before that news, on Thursday, a feature article was published on Fifa’s website entitled “Europe’s finest hours at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup”, looking back at dazzling performances of young breakthrough stars such as Spain’s Salma Paralluelo’s in 2022 or the Germany striker Alexandra Popp in 2010. Next month six European teams – including the hosts, Poland – are scheduled to show the world what they are capable of, but – whether the timing of that article was purely coincidental, political or ironic – European women’s under-20 teams’ finest hour may still be yet to come.

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With Oceania praising Fifa on Friday, all six confederations have finally had their say on the fallout from the World Cup sell-off planThe Oceania Football Confederation’s (OFC) decision to belatedly issue a statement following this week’s executive committee meeting praising Fifa’s “progress achieved over the last decade” means all six continental confederations have finally had their say on the fallout from the World Cup sell-off plan that has split world football, with the votes seeming tied at three apiece on the key issue of whether Gianni Infantino should remain as Fifa president.Significantly however, the individual member associations will not necessarily follow the lead set by their regional confederations, as New Zealand Football (NZF) quickly illustrated by contradicting the OFC’s position in withdrawing their support for Infantino and calling for an independent review of the sell-off plan.NZF is the biggest federation in the OFC and has previously benefited from Infantino’s patronage as the co-hosts of the 2023 Women’s World Cup with Australia, which demonstrates how even some former allies are turning on the beleaguered president in an unprecedented situation for the global game.While the OFC stopped just short of providing a ringing endorsement for Infantino’s re-election other confederations have been more bullish, with the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and the South American confederation (Conmebol) boldly declaring they want him to stay on for a third full term.The 56-year-old has also received public declarations of support from individual Fifa member associations, some of whom are tied to the confederations who want him out, most significantly Mexico in Concacaf and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the Asian Football Confederation.Significantly the 2034 World Cup hosts Saudi Arabia have yet to declare their hand as the Saudi Football Federation is without a president, with elections taking place this month, and their position could be key in determining how many Asian countries follow the lead of the AFC.Concacaf’s 41 members appear more united, although the Grenada Football Association on Friday joined Mexico in declaring their support for Infantino.Mexico is a special case as they have made clear they want to leave the confederation in any case to join Conmebol to gain more lucrative matches against Brazil and Argentina, but senior figures at Uefa are also convinced that individual African countries can be picked off and persuaded to join the rebels.After three weeks of frenetic activity football’s civil war has hardened into a stalemate, which is unlikely to be definitively resolved until next year’s presidential election at Fifa Congress in Rabat in March.With strong allies in Africa and South America, plus the public support of the US president, Donald Trump, there is no prospect of Infantino resigning or withdrawing his candidacy for re-election so a bitterly fought seven-month campaign lies ahead.The most immediate pinch-point is next month’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland, which European countries have threatened to boycott, although it is unclear whether any teams will actually withdraw. Despite being on a war footing it is likely that Uefa and Fifa will reach a public truce in the next few weeks that would enable the competition to go ahead.Beyond that the next deadline is 18 November, when candidates for the Fifa presidency must declare their hand, leaving the Uefa-led alliance with just over three months to find and unite behind an alternative to Infantino.The Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, is seen as the most likely challenger, but will only stand if he is convinced he can win.With an electorate of 211 Fifa members the rebels are far from certain they are close enough to getting the 106 votes required to oust Infantino.

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OFC’s 11 votes could prove crucial in Fifa electionStance shows continued backing from smaller nationsThe Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has declared their support for Gianni Infantino following demands for the Fifa president to resign from Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation in a development that further highlights world football’s civil war.After a meeting of its executive committee in Fiji on Wednesday, the OFC issued a statement on Friday praising “the progress achieved over the last decade” by Fifa in its first public comments since the abandoned World Cup sell-off plan emerged this month.In another sign of division however, the OFC’s biggest member and only nation to qualify for this summer’s World Cup, New Zealand, broke ranks with the confederation by withdrawing their backing for Infantino and calling for an independent review of the Fifa Forward Enterprise plan, which has been demanded by the three rebel groups.The OFC is the smallest confederation in world football with just 11 full members, but with Infantino facing a leadership challenge for the first time in a decade at next year’s presidential election those votes could prove crucial.Uefa, Concacaf and the AFC provide 143 of Fifa’s 211 members, but powerful countries within those blocks most notably Mexico and Qatar have already made it clear that they still support Infantino, while others may also defy the orders of their confederation.The OFC is the last confederation to declare its position and their stance completes the symbolic division of world football, with the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and South American confederation (Conmebol) also backing Infantino.In addition their stance illustrates the continued backing for Infantino among smaller nations such as American Samoa and the Cook Islands, which is likely to emerge as a theme of the presidential election.“The OFC Executive Committee welcomes Fifa’s decision to withdraw the FFE (Fifa Forward Enterprise) proposal and its commitment to review the issues surrounding the project,” the OFC said in a statement.“OFC recognises the progress achieved over the last decade in advancing football development in Oceania under Fifa’s leadership and encourages Fifa to use the review as an opportunity to identify and implement any changes that may be necessary.”The OFC has repeatedly declined to answer questions from the Guardian on its position over the last fortnight, and delayed releasing a statement until two days after its ExCo meeting.New Zealand’s decision to break ranks goes some way towards explaining their reticence to commit in a move that has added significance given the federation have benefited from Infantino’s leadership of Fifa as co-hosts of the 2023 Women’s World Cup with Australia.“After careful consideration, New Zealand Football has formed the view that decisions and actions within Fifa have contributed to a breakdown in trust and increased division within international football, and that an independent review is required to restore confidence and trust,” NZF said in a statement.“NZF believes this point in time represents an opportunity for all Fifa member associations to advocate for stronger governance, accountability and transparency which are fundamental in maintaining confidence of the administration of the global game.”The NZF chief executive, Andrew Pragnell, said that their decision to withdraw support from Infantino was based on their values.“Everyone who’s connected to the game around the globe deserves to know where we stand,” he said. “New Zealand is a country that’s always led based on its values, and we’re really proud to put those first and put the fans and the football community first, because I think right now there are some pretty strong calls for change.“There are an incredible group of hard-working professionals at that organisation who’ve been amazing to work with and actually our thoughts are with them at this time, because it’s a difficult time for them to be in this situation as well, and that’s concerning for us.“So, while we reflect on a lot of positives that have come out of the organisation, ultimately, this type of proposal should never have emerged in the way it did.”