Pro League CEO: Infantino Won’t Step Down, FIFA Alienated
Lorin Parys, CEO of the Pro League, the association of Belgian professional football clubs, has declared that FIFA President Gianni Infantino will not step down voluntarily, describing a sense of “world alienation” at the world football governing body. Speaking on Radio 1’s De Ochtend program, Parys said the crisis engulfing FIFA reflects a deeper systemic failure that requires fundamental governance reform.
“That Infantino will not step down himself has become clear to everyone by now,” Parys said, as reported by VRT NWS. “That does indicate that there is a form of world alienation at FIFA.”
A Crisis of Leadership
Parys’s comments come at the height of the worst crisis of Infantino’s decade-long presidency. On Wednesday, FIFA held an emergency meeting in Rabat, Morocco, after mounting pressure from UEFA and other confederations threatened to derail Infantino’s expected re-election to a fourth term at FIFA’s Congress in March 2027.
Following the meeting, FIFA issued a statement reaffirming its “full support” for Infantino, calling him “the only official elected by the 211 FIFA member associations.” The statement also revealed that Infantino had sent written apologies to the FIFA Council and member associations for failing to consult them over the now-withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, as The Guardian reported.
Parys, however, cautioned against reading too much into the show of support. “Those are all people who work with Infantino,” he noted. “But they are not the ones who determine whether Infantino can stay or be re-elected. Those are the 211 football associations from around the world.”
The Failed World Cup Sell-Off
The crisis was triggered by FIFA’s FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, announced on July 28. The plan would have created a commercial subsidiary valued at $20 billion, selling a roughly 20% stake to private investors to raise $4.2 billion. The investor group was led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Eternal, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as Al Jazeera reported.
The proposal sparked a rare revolt within world football. On July 30, all 55 UEFA associations unanimously voted to boycott future World Cups and all FIFA competitions until the proposal was abandoned. CONCACAF and its 41 member associations rejected the plan, and the Asian Football Confederation stood in solidarity. FIFA senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest, describing the plan as “a bad deal for football.” The proposal was withdrawn on July 31.
“Look at the plans to sell the World Cup: that idea was able to go much too far without anyone being able to provide input,” Parys said. “Global resistance then emerged, but global resistance can never be a governance model.”
A System Out of Balance
Parys argues that the crisis exposes a fundamental flaw in FIFA’s structure. “FIFA’s power is now so extensive that it is simultaneously the referee on the football field and the team that is also on the field,” he said. “That obviously cannot work.”
His critique extends to the financial relationship between FIFA and the clubs that supply players for international competitions. “You must not forget that it is the clubs that continue to pay the players’ salaries during international competitions,” Parys said. “And then FIFA wants to commercialize them and resell the rights. Then something is not right with that system.”
A Three-Point Proposal for Reform
Parys advocates for co-decision rights in three specific areas: calendar expansion, player release for international competitions, and far-reaching commercial decisions about competitions like the World Cup. He argues that clubs, competitions, players, and national associations must all have a seat at the table when such decisions are made.
“The proposal is actually simple: the clubs that employ and pay the players, and the competitions that ensure players can develop, must sit at the table to make far-reaching decisions, as must the players themselves and the football associations,” he said.
Parys, who recently authored an opinion piece in The Economist on football governance, acknowledged that a significant mindset change would be required. “Something really must change,” he warned, “otherwise you will end up in situations again where world football becomes essentially ungovernable.”
What’s Next for Infantino
Despite the mounting opposition, Infantino appears determined to carry on. He is scheduled to fly to Colombia on Thursday to attend the inauguration of President Abelardo de la Espriella in Cali, according to The Guardian.
UEFA has stated it has lost confidence in Infantino’s leadership and issued FIFA with a document preservation letter. The Dutch football association (KNVB) spoke of a “fundamental breakdown of trust” in Infantino’s leadership, as Sporza reported.
The crisis was further compounded by the controversial reversal of Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension during the World Cup, after Trump made calls to FIFA. The Guardian’s explainer detailed how FIFA used Article 27 of its disciplinary code to lift the ban, raising serious governance concerns about FIFA’s independence.
While mechanisms exist to remove Infantino - including an emergency FIFA Council meeting or an extraordinary congress - both routes face significant hurdles. Parys’s call for systemic reform reflects a growing sentiment across European football that the current governance model is no longer sustainable.
“We need a strong FIFA,” Parys concluded, “but with strong rules and with a form of input from those involved.”