Amid mounting pressure following the collapse of his controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) World Cup investment proposal, FIFA President Gianni Infantino faces an unprecedented political crisis. However, removing a sitting FIFA chief before the end of his mandate remains a highly complex procedural challenge.

Under official FIFA Statutes, the authority to dismiss a sitting president rests solely with the FIFA Congress—the governing body’s supreme assembly consisting of all 211 member associations—and not the 37-member FIFA Council.

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To initiate a vote of no confidence or address Infantino’s tenure ahead of schedule, member associations representing at least 20 per cent of FIFA's total membership (43 of the 211 national federations) must formally request an Extraordinary FIFA Congress. UEFA’s 55 member associations alone comfortably exceed this threshold, though no confederation has formally submitted such a request. If an extraordinary session were convened, a motion to unseat the president would still require a majority vote from the global membership, with each national association holding a single vote.

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An alternative pathway for early removal exists through FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee. The committee possesses the statutory power to investigate potential breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethics and hand down provisional or permanent bans—the exact mechanism that brought Sepp Blatter’s presidency to an end in 2015. However, no formal ethics investigation has been opened regarding the current commercial dispute.

Should Infantino remain in post, rival federations could seek to defeat him at the ballot box. The next FIFA presidential election is scheduled to take place at the 77th FIFA Congress in Rabat, Morocco, on 18 March 2027. Any challenger would need to be formally nominated by 18 November 2026 and secure at least 106 votes from the member associations to claim a majority and unseat the incumbent.