More than 100,000 people have added their names to a complaint against Gianni Infantino, alleging the Fifa president has “at a minimum, abused his power, violated his duty of political neutrality, and violated his duty of loyalty” through his interactions with Donald Trump. The Reboot Fifa campaign was launched before the World Cup with the aim of delivering “the biggest complaint Fifa has ever received” over the organisation’s alleged failings of governance. The campaign has since extended the scope of its accusations to include the overturning of the red card awarded to Folarin Balogun at the tournament and the aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme.
The complaint was submitted on Tuesday to Fifa’s ethics committee and in a supporting letter the organisers of Reboot Fifa,the advocacy group Fair Square, call on the committee to take action. An original complaint, submitted in December of last year, failed to receive a response from the committee but has gained the backing of the Norwegian football federation and 50 European parliamentarians. They also cite the awarding of the Fifa peace prize to Trump, Infantino’s involvement in Trump’s Board of Peace in the Middle East and the Fifa president’s promise to work with Trump to “make not only America great again but also the entire world”, an act Fair Square suggests shows a failure to remain politically neutral.
Fifa, when approached for comment, pointed to a statement first published a month ago. Uefa has called on Infantino to stand down and recently announced its intention to pursue criminal claims in the US over the FFE plans.
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