{"id":2687,"date":"2026-08-03T10:08:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T10:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=2687"},"modified":"2026-08-03T10:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T10:08:52","slug":"wales-withdraws-support-for-infantinos-fifa-re-election-bid-over-governance-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/wales-withdraws-support-for-infantinos-fifa-re-election-bid-over-governance-concerns\/sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales withdraws support for Infantino\u2019s FIFA re-election bid over governance concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wales.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2688\" style=\"width:767px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wales.jpg 640w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wales-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wales has become the first football association to withdraw its support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino\u2019s bid for re-election, citing concerns over governance, leadership and decision-making at world football\u2019s governing body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Football Association of Wales (FAW) said on Saturday it no longer backed Infantino\u2019s candidacy for a new term covering 2027 to 2031, following what it described as a series of failures in FIFA\u2019s leadership and processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The decision comes after Infantino faced criticism over a proposal to sell stakes in future World Cup-related commercial ventures to private investors. The plan was abandoned last week after opposition from several football confederations, including UEFA, which had warned its member nations could boycott FIFA events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the proposal has been withdrawn, Infantino\u2019s leadership remains under scrutiny ahead of the FIFA presidential election in March next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The FAW said the recent issues surrounding FIFA had caused Infantino to lose its confidence as leader of world football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRecent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football,\u201d the association said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFailing to put the best interests of football first is a failure we cannot accept.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move follows growing calls for greater accountability at FIFA, with critics questioning the organisation\u2019s approach to governance under Infantino, who has led the body since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Swiss official is expected to seek another term when FIFA members vote next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wales has become the first football association to withdraw its support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino\u2019s bid for re-election, citing concerns over governance, leadership and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,41,36,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current_affairs","category-hot_topics","category-international","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2689,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions\/2689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}