Infantino Heads to a Children's Tournament in the Caribbean to Save His Job

Gianni Infantino is planning to attend an under-14s football tournament in the Dominican Republic this weekend — not for the football, but to fight for his survival as FIFA president.

The event is the Caribbean Football Union's U14 Boys Challenge, organised by a body whose 21 member associations each hold a vote in FIFA's presidential elections. The CFU sits inside Concacaf, the confederation covering North and Central America and the Caribbean, and Concacaf is openly working with Uefa to remove Infantino from office (The Guardian).

Infantino views the CFU meetings as a chance to split the Concacaf bloc and lobby the region's smaller nations directly, ahead of next March's election. He has some footholds. Mexico, Concacaf's most successful footballing nation, is defying its own confederation by backing him. Two CFU members — Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis — have also declared their support. Panama is understood to have given a private endorsement, though it has not gone public. Meanwhile, Infantino has spent time in Morocco and Qatar over the past month, leaning on his most steadfast allies as the pressure has mounted.

The crisis was triggered last month by Infantino's proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors — a plan negotiated in secret, as critics see it, behind the backs of FIFA's own members. On 10 August, Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation jointly released a letter condemning the proposal (Reuters). Concacaf accused him of breaking trust "through deception." The three confederations believe they can count on at least 106 of FIFA's 211 member associations to unseat him — a bare majority, if it holds (Le Monde). Uefa's 55 members and Concacaf's 35 alone account for 90 votes.

Under FIFA's rules, 43 member associations can submit a written request forcing the FIFA Council to call an extraordinary congress within three months — a mechanism Uefa, Concacaf and the AFC are continuing to explore. The statutes contain no specific provision for a vote of no confidence in the president, but such an item can be placed on the agenda if the written requests specify it.

The Dominican Republic's football association invited Infantino to the tournament before the World Cup sell-off plan emerged. The country has since backed the joint Uefa-Concacaf-AFC statement calling for an independent review and an emergency FIFA Council meeting. If Infantino goes, he will also face Concacaf president Victor Montagliani — widely viewed as his most credible challenger for the presidency. Senior figures within Concacaf have urged Infantino to stay away.

For ordinary fans, this matters because the World Cup is the one tournament everyone watches together — and who runs FIFA shapes who hosts it, how it is funded, and whether it stays in the hands of football's member associations or opens the door to private investors.

That sentiment reached a new pitch on 20 August, when fan groups from all six FIFA confederations launched a petition calling for Infantino's resignation. Their statement said the World Cup sell-off plan was "stitched together in secret and negotiated behind closed doors, hidden from FIFA's own members and football fans."

FIFA declined to comment on the president's movements. The Boys Challenge and the CFU meetings are not FIFA events, which has raised eyebrows over Infantino's plan to attend.

Among the other potential challengers circling the presidency are Bahrain's Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi (ESPN). The election is in March. Infantino is running out of road — and he knows it.