Norway calls on FIFA president Infantino to resign after World Cup plan fiasco

Norway’s football federation called on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign immediately, turning the collapse of FIFA’s World Cup commercial plan into a direct challenge to the governing body’s leadership. Federation president Lise Klaveness said there was “no trust” in Infantino now, sharpening a dispute that has become about accountability, not just one failed proposal.

The pressure built after FIFA scrapped a plan that would have spun off its commercial businesses into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20 percent owned by private investors. The proposal covered FIFA’s men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups, and it drew resistance from members before being abandoned. A senior FIFA adviser resigned over the plan, while another senior official said staff had been deceived, deepening the sense that the process had been mishandled as much as the idea itself.

The revolt has not stayed inside Norway. Mexico’s football federation broke with Concacaf to back Infantino, showing how the dispute has cut across confederation lines rather than along a simple Europe-versus-rest split. Concacaf and its 41 member associations later welcomed FIFA’s withdrawal of the proposal and said “a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative.” That language matters because it moves the issue beyond a single commercial dispute and into a broader challenge to how FIFA concentrates power and makes decisions.

Lise Klaveness and Welsh official Laura McAllister were among the figures credited with helping stop the sell-off plan, underlining that the pushback came from inside football’s political structure, not from outside campaigners. Infantino has long been a divisive president, supported by some for expanding FIFA’s commercial reach and criticized by others for centralizing control. Reuters said FIFA’s retreat from the plan prompted fresh transparency calls, and the latest backlash shows that those demands are no longer confined to a narrow group of critics.

The practical question now is whether Norway’s demand will bring other federations into open opposition. Concacaf’s split with Mexico, along with Norway’s public break with Infantino, suggests FIFA is facing a wider governance revolt that reaches into the sport’s voting blocs. Even if Infantino keeps his job, the resignation call has pushed legitimacy, not just money, to the center of the fight.