Over 100,000 people sign petition asking FIFA to open probe into chief Infantino

LONDON, September 9. /TASS/. Over 100,000 people have signed a petition requesting that the world’s governing football body, FIFA, launch a probe into the organization’s current president, Gianni Infantino, Reuters news agency reported citing the FairSquare human rights organization.

Last month, FairSquare submitted a letter to the FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee, demanding that Infantino be declared ineligible to run for a new presidential term in the upcoming election.

"The complaint was filed by FairSquare and its ‘Reboot FIFA’ campaign, which accuses Infantino of multiple breaches outlined in a letter to FIFA's Ethics Committee," according to Reuters.

Previously, FairSquare had sent a request to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), claiming that Infantino had violated the oath he took in 2020 at the IOC office in Lausanne, stating that he would act independently of commercial and political interests. The IOC refused to consider the complaint.

Infantino’s controversial commercial offer

Infantino announced a proposal on July 30 to sell a share of the FIFA World Cup commercial rights to private investors under a scheme that he claimed would have potentially brought in tens of millions of dollars. The plan involved establishing a company that would control the major men's and women's FIFA tournaments - the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. The organization consulted with people close to the administration of US President Donald Trump prior to voicing this decision.

In response to the proposal, the European governing body of football, UEFA, said that 55 of its member-states had voted to boycott all football tournaments sponsored by FIFA. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) also rejected Infantino’s proposal.

In March 2023, Infantino was re-elected for another four-year term as the president of FIFA. Infantino, who was 52 at that time, ran unopposed as he was elected unanimously at the 2023 FIFA Congress in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

Infantino was elected the president of the world’s governing body in February 2016 at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress in Paris. In June 2019, he was re-elected for another four-year presidential term.

Born in Switzerland, Infantino, 56, is fluent in French, Italian and German and also speaks English, Spanish and Arabic.