Miguel Maduro, former chair of FIFA's governance committee, has said that Gianni Infantino is not eligible to run for a fourth term as FIFA president in 2027 under the organisation's rules, at a time when the head of world football's governing body is seeking re-election.
اضافة اعلان
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Maduro said: "Article 33, paragraph two of the FIFA statutes is very clear when it states that no person may hold the presidency for more than three terms."
He added: "Gianni Infantino has been elected three times and has served three terms as FIFA president. So in my view, there is no way for Infantino to take up the FIFA presidency again."
Maduro's remarks come two weeks before FIFA's deadline for nominations for the presidential election scheduled for March 2027. As the deadline approaches, the human rights organisation FairSquare has written to member associations, urging them to declare Infantino ineligible to stand.
FairSquare had previously urged FIFA to rule that Infantino was ineligible for another term, arguing that he had already used up the maximum of three terms. However, Infantino successfully argued that his first term, when he was elected at an extraordinary congress in 2016 following Sepp Blatter's resignation, should not count towards that limit, as it was the completion of an interrupted term.
In December 2022, the FIFA Council unanimously confirmed that the period from 2016 to 2019 would not count as a term for Infantino. However, FairSquare has pointed out that the reasons for that decision were never made public.
Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer who was removed from his FIFA post in 2017 after he barred Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko from seeking re-election to his Ethics Committee, argued that the wording of the rule does not exclude a shortened term. He said: "The text of the rule is clear and refers to three terms. It does not distinguish between whether those terms were complete or incomplete, or terms of four years or less."
The Asian confederation boosts Infantino's prospects
Infantino's chances of re-election were significantly strengthened last month, when the president of the Asian Football Confederation endorsed his candidacy. The support of the continental confederations gives him a strong position among FIFA's 211 voting members.
FairSquare said it had contacted 52 national associations. Although none has responded to its appeal so far, the organisation's director and co-founder, Nicolas McGeehan, told Reuters that they would hold a meeting with Norwegian football officials on Wednesday.
The Norwegian Football Federation previously backed FairSquare's formal complaint against Infantino over alleged breaches of the rules on political neutrality. McGeehan said: "Given that the Norwegian federation has already engaged with the ethics committee and the governance committee, we hope they will set an example in this case too. But other federations must step in, as the matter cannot always be left to the Norwegians."
Maduro concluded by saying that member associations appeared reluctant to act independently because of what he described as an "atmosphere of fear."
Note for the editor: The quotes from Maduro, McGeehan and the FIFA statutes are translated from the Arabic version of the report. Please check them against the original English reporting and the official FIFA statutes before publishing, particularly the exact wording of Article 33.
