Norway have called on Gianni Infantino to resign following his aborted attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, despite support for the Fifa president from Mexico and the head of South America’s football governing body.
Norway have gone a step further than the football associations of England, Wales, Croatia and Albania – all of whom have withdrawn support for Infantino without explicitly calling for the 56-year-old to resign.
“He [Infantino] does not have the institutional trust required to govern Fifa stably in the times we are in,” Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness said on Friday.
“There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. The international football co-operation is very much in trouble, and we must have a reason to get together now, and we want to ask the Fifa president to resign now.
“We will see which other countries eventually join in, if that becomes the strategy from the Uefa board. We are not going to ask for an extraordinary [Uefa board] meeting, we will ask him to resign in our dialogue with Fifa.”
Klaveness, who is a qualified lawyer, went through a list of concerns that the Norwegian FA has expressed to Fifa during her four-year tenure.
Among them were questions around the awarding of tournaments, the inaugural Fifa peace prize that was awarded to US President Donald Trump in December, and the overturning of a ban for American forward Folarin Balogun during the recent World Cup following a phone call from Trump.
Fifa has been approached for comment.
Meanwhile, earlier on Friday the Mexican Football Federation broke ranks with its regional governing body Concacaf to come out in support of Infantino.
Concacaf, which runs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, called for a “comprehensive reckoning” of his presidency after he aborted his controversial proposals.
Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a proposal for private investment in its tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups, through the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) subsidiary.
However, 2026 World Cup co-hosts Mexico have backed his leadership amid widespread calls for him to resign.
“The FMF [Mexican FA] supports president Infantino’s leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening,” a statement read.
It echoed a statement from Conmebol – South America’s governing body – in saying it would reject any attempt to remove Infantino without a vote involving all 211 Fifa members.
However, Conmebol did “express its concern about the repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue or the institutional mechanisms provided for dealing with this type of situation”.
Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez accompanied Infantino at the inauguration of Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella on Friday.
He praised both Infantino’s record and the “enormously successful” 2026 World Cup, saying “we stand with Gianni”.
Regarding the Fifa presidential election next year, Dominguez added: “We have a very firm, clear position which is to support institutionality.
“If there were another candidate who wanted to run, we’re in an electoral process, I think it’s legitimate for people to come forward, put forward their candidacy, propose an electoral contest, which could be very healthy for football, and we’ll see who wins.
“We’ll be there for whatever is best for football.”
