Trembling at a single phone call from Trump... Infantino, even his homeland Switzerland says "You are shameful," officially withdrawing support

*This content was translated by AI.

Gianni Infantino (56), President of the International Football Federation (FIFA), suffered a major blow as he lost the support of his home country, Switzerland, ahead of his bid for re-election next year.

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) officially announced on the 1st (Korean time) that it would withdraw its support for Infantino in the FIFA presidential election to be held in March next year. The SFV reversed its support policy, which had been expressed in June, just three months after an internal meeting on the 25th of last month.

In a statement, the SFV explained the background of the withdrawal by stating, "As a result of reviewing the developments over the past few months, fundamental questions have grown regarding leadership, governance, transparency, and decision-making processes within FIFA."

The decisive causes are cited as the controversy over the so-called "privatization of the World Cup" and allegations of preferential treatment for the U.S. national team. In July, Infantino established a subsidiary called 'FFE' to exclusively handle commercial rights for major FIFA tournaments and attempted to sell 20% of its shares to the U.S. private equity firm Slive Capital for $4.2 billion, but the plan was scrapped after facing fierce backlash.

Additionally, the incident in which the one-year suspension of U.S. national team forward Paul Aron Vallo, who was sent off in a Round of 32 match at the 2026 North America World Cup, was overturned due to a single protest phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump, also cast a serious shadow on FIFA's fairness.

With even Switzerland, Infantino's homeland and the location of FIFA headquarters, turning its back, the "anti-Infantino" front in European football appears to be becoming more solid. Previously, football associations from major European countries such as England, France, Wales, and Serbia had also successively declared the withdrawal of their support for Infantino.

The next FIFA presidential election will be held in March next year, and the deadline for candidate registration is November 18. Currently, Infantino is the only scheduled candidate, but the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has decided to field a strong challenger against him before the registration deadline.

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*This content was translated by AI.