Scottish FA Withdraws Support for Gianni Infantino

The Scottish FA has formally broken with Gianni Infantino, declaring it has lost confidence in the Fifa president and will not back him in the next election.

Chief executive Ian Maxwell confirmed the move, saying the SFA is fully aligned with Uefa’s increasingly hostile stance towards world football’s governing body and its leader.

Scotland joins growing anti-Infantino bloc

Infantino is facing mounting fury over his attempt to set up Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new company that would have controlled the commercial and ticketing rights for all Fifa competitions, including the World Cups, with 21% to be sold to a private investment firm.

The plan has since been scrapped after a fierce backlash, driven by Uefa and supported by other confederations, with threats of a boycott of Fifa competitions thrown into the mix.

For Maxwell, the line has been crossed.

“The position of the SFA has been clear since the 55 Uefa associations met,” he told BBC Sport, speaking as he unveiled Belgian Sebastian Pocognoli as Scotland’s new head coach. “We have aligned ourselves with the Uefa position and 55 nations are stronger than one voice.

“Their statement since then has talked about a lack of confidence in the Fifa leadership and the Scottish FA agree completely with that decision.

“The SFA will not be voting for Gianni Infantino come the re-election in early 2027.”

Pressure tightens on Fifa president

The Scottish FA’s stance drops Infantino into even deeper political trouble in Europe and beyond. The English FA, the Football Association of Wales and the Football Association of Ireland have already withdrawn their support for him ahead of the March election, where he is due to seek a fourth term.

Maxwell dismissed any suggestion that Scotland had been slow to distance itself because SFA president Mike Mulraney chairs Fifa’s finance committee. The message now is unambiguous: Scotland has moved into the opposition camp.

Last week, Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation escalated the confrontation with an open letter accusing Fifa and Infantino of breaking trust “through deception”.

Signed by the presidents and general secretaries of the three regional bodies, the letter framed the FFE storm as a question of “the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it”.

Infantino was not named directly, but sources have told BBC Sport the statement should be read as an invitation for him to step aside and leave with some dignity intact.

Governance, legal warnings and talk of breakaways

Under pressure, Fifa has promised to present a report on the FFE episode to the next Fifa Council meeting, expected in October. That pledge has done little to calm its critics.

The three confederations say such an internal review falls well short of acceptable governance, arguing that only a “fully independent third party” should examine a proposal of such scale and the judgement behind it.

They have also reinforced Uefa’s legal warning that Fifa must not delete or destroy any documents related to the abandoned project, underlining just how serious they consider the matter.

Behind the scenes, the stakes are being raised even higher. BBC Sport understands there have been preliminary conversations between Uefa, Concacaf and the AFC about potential breakaway competitions if Infantino remains in power. Those discussions are described as exploratory rather than advanced, but the fact they are happening at all speaks volumes.

For now, Infantino remains unchallenged on the ballot. No rival candidate has formally come forward ahead of the 18 November deadline.

He still has the machinery of Fifa behind him. What he is rapidly losing is the trust of some of the game’s most powerful regions – and now, emphatically, Scotland.