Four Top European Leagues Demand FIFA Reform — SkimNews
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- Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A will jointly demand urgent FIFA governance reform in a Friday statement, seeking greater consultation on the global football calendar and more independent oversight of decision-making
- Gianni Infantino wrote to all 211 FIFA member nations this week proposing an "independent external review" of FIFA's governance framework, while affirming his intention to remain president and offering no review of his own position
- The European Leagues Association — whose membership includes the four leagues behind Friday's call — filed a legal complaint to the EU nearly two years ago over FIFA's handling of the International Match Calendar
- The FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal to sell 20% of FIFA's commercial rights, including the World Cup, to private investors — including Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner (President Donald Trump's son-in-law) — was abandoned in July after global opposition and boycott threats
- UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF separately called for changes to FIFA's leadership after FFE's collapse, though Infantino is said to be increasingly confident of surviving his March re-election
- FIFA's council is set to discuss Infantino's reform proposals when it meets next month
Why it matters: The four leagues represent Europe's biggest commercial football markets, and their joint demand — layered on top of an EU legal complaint and three confederations calling for leadership change — narrows Infantino's room to maneuver ahead of next month's FIFA council meeting. His offer of an external governance review, paired with a pointed refusal to revisit his own position, forces the fight onto calendar control and process rather than personnel — which is exactly the fight the Premier League-led bloc came to pick.
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