FairSquare’s Reboot campaign has submitted an updated complaint about the conduct of FIFA President Gianni Infantino. More than 100,000 people added their names to the complaint, which cites the Balogun affair and the now aborted World Cup sell-off proposal as just the most recent examples within a series of interconnected breaches of FIFA’s ethics code. The complaint provides “a body of evidence that points to serial dysfunction and misgovernance at the highest level of football governance.”
FairSquare submitted a previous complaint to the Ethics Committee on 8 December 2025. The Ethics Committee acknowledged receipt of that complaint on 12 December 2025, but has provided no update since. FairSquare launched its Reboot campaign in June to galvanise public and political support for meaningful reform of FIFA and offered people the opportunity to add their names to an updated complaint against Infantino. This new complaint includes details of Mr Infantino’s role in the so-called ‘Balogun’ affair during the 2026 men’s World Cup, and Mr Infantino’s widely condemned efforts to sell the rights to FIFA’s commercial and event operations to a private equity group with connections to President Trump. It provides compelling evidence of multiple breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethic’s rules on political neutrality (article 15), fiduciary duty (article 16) and abuse of power (article 26), which if substantiated by the Ethics Committee could ban Infantino from any football-related activity for a significant period of time.
The political pressure on FIFA and Infantino has intensified since the start of the men’s World Cup. The Norwegian Football Federation wrote to the Ethics Committee in June requesting that FairSquare’s complaint be thoroughly and transparently handled, as did 50 Members of the European Parliament, who called on the Ethics Committee “to prove its commitment to political neutrality, transparency, and accountability.” In July, the House Judiciary Committee in the US Congress requested that Mr Infantino appear before the committee in relation to its concerns over his connections to President Trump, and two committee chairs in the European Parliament have announced their intention to call FIFA representatives to appear before a joint hearing.
FIFA’s member associations and regional confederations had generally turned a blind eye to Infantino’s overtures to President Trump, but Infantino’s proposed sell-off plan prompted unprecedented criticism. UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC have accused Infantino of “deception” and a “fundamental breach of trust”, and in August UEFA announced its intention to file a legal complaint in Switzerland against Infantino alleging “criminal mismanagement”. Football Associations, including England, Scotland and Wales have withdrawn their support for Infantino while the Dutch football federation has called for a summit on football’s future without Infantino and three Nordic associations have requested a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Sport to discuss the sport’s future governance.
“This complaint is about a lot more than Gianni Infantino. It demonstrates the extent of public anger and frustration with FIFA, and gives FIFA one more opportunity to show that it is institutionally capable of holding its most senior officials accountable for flagrant rule-breaking,” said Nick McGeehan, who is coordinating the Reboot campaign on behalf of FairSquare. “Any failure to do that will be keenly noted by the lawmakers in Brussels and Washington who are already scrutinising FIFA.”
Reboot’s Advisory Board comprises David Goldblatt, Jules Boykoff, Keith Look Loy, Niamh O’Mahony, Bonita Mersiades, Steff Ndei, and Musa Okwonga. Its legal advisors are Antoine Duval, Michele Krech, and Jan Zglinski. Digital campaign group WeMoveEu assisted with the collection of signatures for this complaint.
