New Zealand breaks from Oceania to oppose Infantino as FIFA's civil war deepens
New Zealand Football has formally withdrawn its support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, breaking ranks with its regional confederation and calling for an independent review of the governing body's development programme.
The announcement on Friday, August 14, makes New Zealand the latest national association to pull its backing from the FIFA leader ahead of the presidential vote at March's FIFA Congress — the gathering of all 211 member associations that elects the organisation's chief every four years.
In a statement, New Zealand Football said decisions and actions within FIFA have contributed to "a breakdown in trust and increased division within international football." Chief executive Andrew Pragnell went further, demanding an independent review of the FIFA Forward Enterprise Scheme (FFE) — a development fund designed to distribute money to member associations for grassroots and infrastructure projects. New Zealand wants scrutiny of how the scheme was developed before any further expansion of it is approved.
The trigger for the unrest was Infantino's aborted plan to sell 20% of the World Cup's commercial rights to private investors. That proposal — which would have handed outside financiers a stake in FIFA's most valuable asset — drew an immediate backlash. Three regional confederations withdrew their support: UEFA (Europe), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean). UEFA has maintained its threat to boycott the World Cup entirely if the governance concerns are not addressed. Infantino ultimately withdrew the proposal.
New Zealand's move is striking because it breaks from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the regional body that governs 11 Pacific island nations and territories. The OFC welcomed FIFA's decision to pull the FFE proposal but stopped short of declaring support for or opposition to Infantino. New Zealand was the only OFC member to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, giving it a profile within the confederation that punches above its size.
The picture across the rest of FIFA's membership is fragmented. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) unanimously backed Infantino at a meeting earlier in August, and South American governing body Conmebol has also declared its support. The heads of six Arab football federations expressed full confidence in the FIFA president, and Infantino received internal backing at a FIFA crisis meeting. But his coalition now spans two continents firmly in his corner, three major confederations against him, and a growing list of individual associations willing to go public with their dissent.
For fans, this is a power struggle with real consequences. The FIFA president controls the direction of the world's most popular sport — from how World Cups are run and expanded, to how billions in television and sponsorship revenue are shared among member nations. When confederations talk about boycotting the World Cup, the stakes reach all the way down to whether tournaments go ahead as planned.
Infantino is seeking a fourth term. Whether he commands enough votes in March will depend on which way the undecideds break — and whether the trust New Zealand says has broken down can be rebuilt before then.
