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Six Nordic football associations have withdrawn their confidence in FIFA President Gianni Infantino and called for major reforms to the governance of world football.
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands announced their position in a joint statement after meeting in Helsinki on Sunday.
The associations backed calls by UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF for Infantino to resign, as pressure mounts on the FIFA president ahead of next year’s election.
“The six Nordic football associations have lost confidence in FIFA’s president and are concerned about the organisation’s governance and decision-making at the highest level,” they said.
They also demanded an independent investigation into Infantino’s proposal to allow private equity investors to acquire stakes in major FIFA events, including the World Cup. The proposal was abandoned following widespread opposition.
“We expect FIFA to provide binding guarantees that the organisation’s governance or competitions will never again be opened up to private ownership,” the Nordic associations said.
The associations further backed calls for an independent external investigation into the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal and demanded a comprehensive review of FIFA’s governance structure.
“We also call on FIFA to initiate a comprehensive and independent review of its governance framework to determine whether it ensures the independence, checks and balances, transparency and accountability that were intended when FIFA adopted its reform programme in 2016.”
Infantino, who is seeking a fourth term that would keep him in office until 2031, is currently in the Dominican Republic, where he met officials of the Caribbean Football Union despite a request from CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani that he stay away from a youth tournament.
“This meeting of the presidents of CFU takes place in the environment of [an] under-14 youth tournament in the region, which actually is one of those tournaments that can take place thanks to the FIFA Forward programme,” Infantino said.
“So even more so a reason to be proud to be here and happy as well because it’s important to engage, to have a dialogue, to express views and opinions.”
FIFA did not respond to a request for comment on the Nordic associations’ statement.
