BREAKING: FIFA to respond to UEFA questions about Gianni Infantino’s presidency
UEFA questions FIFA over Infantino's presidency as pressure and re-election prospects take centre stage
Sky Sports News discusses UEFA sending FIFA 42 questions about Gianni Infantino's presidency and setting a 2 November deadline. The report suggests UEFA is trying to force Infantino out and lay the groundwork for a possible challenger before the 18 November nomination date, while FIFA says it will answer Council members but not in public.
- UEFA wants Infantino out as soon as possible and is using the 42-question letter to pile pressure on him to resign — The eight-page letter contains 42 questions that, in UEFA's view, amount to a catalogue of what has gone wrong under Infantino.
- The 42 questions are effectively UEFA's greatest-hits list of Infantino's presidential failures — They cover issues including the abandoned plan to sell a stake to people linked to President Donald Trump, an extra £1.3m payment in 2024, a suspended player appearing at the World Cup, a 27-minute halftime show, VIP seating and the FIFA peace prize.
- FIFA's response notably omits UEFA's deadline, signaling it will not be rushed to UEFA's timetable — FIFA says it replies to questions from Council members but will not breach confidentiality by commenting publicly.
- UEFA's 2 November deadline is meant to pressure Infantino to resign before the 18 November deadline for challengers — 18 November is when candidates must declare; if no one challenges, Infantino would be elected unopposed for a fourth term until 2031 at the March congress in Morocco.
- If Arsene Wenger ran against Infantino, he could win, and the race would be close — Wenger remains hugely popular worldwide, but he currently works at FIFA under Infantino and has not commented on a challenge.
► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT FIFA says it will reply to the 42 questions it was sent yesterday bu UEFA about Gianni Infantino’s presidency. UEFA have given FIFA a deadline of 2 November to reply to all the questions and provide the requested documents. FIFA spokesperson: “The FIFA Governance Regulations state that Council meetings and their associated documentation are confidential. “While FIFA intends to reply to questions submitted by its Council members it has no intention of breaching confidentiality by commenting on internal communication and/or documentation to media. "FIFA considers respect for these Regulations to be a function of respect for the Council itself and for its individual members. FIFA will always maintain this respect and will not be drawn into any exchange with any third parties that undermines this.” SkySportsNews SkySports football ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage
Transcript
Right. Uh, the ongoing riot between UEFA and FIFA is continuing. Last night, UEFA sent an urgent letter demanding answers to 42 detailed questions about the presidency of Jani Infantino. Kavviso brought us that news uh last night. Look, just clear up what did FIFA say about this? Yeah, obviously last night we asked FIFA for full comment and they've just got back to us and basically what FIFA are saying is that we will well we're intending to reply in full to the questions. Now, they don't specifically say that they're going to reply uh to the letter and the questions they got from UEFA, but they say whatever questions we get from council members, we do reply to them, but and this is an important but, we don't do it in public. So don't expect a running commentary because we want to respect uh the confidentiality of council meetings. So it's not something that we are going to comment on further in public. Obviously this has all to do with this civil war if I can call it which is raging in football at the moment between uh UEFA and FIFA. And obviously UEFA wants Johnny Infantino out. They want him out as soon as possible. They want to put as much pressure as possible to make him resign, which is one of the reasons they sent this letter yesterday. Extraordinary letter. It had 42 questions over eight pages. uh I saw all the questions and it was basically the greatest hits of everything that has gone wrong under Johnny Infantino's presidency according to UEFA. So for instance, they want questions about this uh abandoned plan that uh Johnny Infantino had to sell off a stakeh associates of President Donald Trump. They want to know why Johnny Infantino in 2024 got an extra payment of 1.3 million pounds on top of his salary. They want to know why following Balagan played in the World Cup when he was suspended. They want to know why the halftime show halftime is supposed to be 15 minutes. Why was it 27 minutes? Who decided that? They even want to know why some of the VIPs and VVIPs who attended the World Cup final got better tickets and better seats than some of the presidents of football federations from around the world and general secretaries of uh confederations around the world as well. You're smiling, but this is this is this is these are the kind of things UEFA want answered and they want answers about that infamous bizarre FIFA peace prize. Remember that in December? We do remember that. >> I was there in Washington. Johnny Infantino gives President Trump a peace prize. UA want to know what was that all about? Whose idea was the FIFA peace prize? Why weren't the FIFA council members told about it? who decided that it should go to President Trump. So, this is a very very detailed list of 42 questions. Most of them very very serious. Some of them I think you can interpret as being a little bit lighthearted. But look, UEFA want answers and they want them by this deadline of November the 2nd. So, two weeks. Interestingly, in the statement which we've just had from FIFA, there's no mention of any deadline. So they're not saying we're going to dance the UEFA's tune and get back to them quickly. They're just saying we always uh you know get back to council members when they ask us questions, but we don't do it in public. >> Well, it's interesting they've got a a twoe deadline. Why would you think that UEFA have put the twoe deadline? Well, what is really important if you're interested in football politics and governance is the 18th of November because that is the date where you have to declare if you want to challenge Johnny Infantino for the FIFA presidency. And obviously Johnny Infantino and the people around him want to get to the 18th of November without anyone challenging him because that means next March in Morocco he will be elected again unopposed for a fourth time and he'll be FIFA president despite all the scandals and controversies until 2031. So I think what UEFO are trying to do is put as much pressure on Infantino to make him resign. He's not going to do that. But I think they're also preparing the ground for putting forward a challenger themselves. A lot of people in football are very excited at the prospect of it being Aran Wenger. I think he's somebody who could beat Johnny Infantino, but of course at the moment Arena works inside FIFA. He was given his job by Johnny Infantino as FIFA's chief of global football development. And so far there hasn't been any comment from uh Arsenenger about wanting to challenge um Johnny Infantino. But if he was to stand, I think we'd have a very very exciting race and it would be close because Arson Wenger is still hugely popular all around the world. >> You need to get on the phone to him and ask him whether he's going to put in. >> I've tried. >> Thanks, Ky. And he would