Six Nordic football associations have withdrawn their confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino and called for sweeping reforms at world football’s governing body.
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands met in Helsinki and issued a rare joint statement backing calls from three of the world’s largest confederations for Infantino to resign.
The Nordic associations also called for an independent investigation into a controversial proposal to sell a stake in a company that would have been responsible for the commercial rights to the World Cup. The plans were quickly abandoned following strong opposition.
“The six Nordic football associations have lost confidence in FIFA’s president and are concerned about the organization’s governance and decision-making at the highest level,” they said.
“The Nordic football associations stand united with UEFA and support the measures that the organization and its national member associations have jointly proposed. We expect FIFA to provide binding guarantees that the organization’s governance or competitions will never again be opened up to private ownership,” they added.
Infantino is facing pressure from three confederations calling for his resignation: UEFA in Europe, the AFC in Asia and CONCACAF, which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean.
UEFA and CONCACAF are also discussing a joint Nations League as a potential challenge to FIFA.
“We also support the demand made by AFC, CONCACAF and UEFA that a fully independent external investigation into the events surrounding the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal be established,” the Nordic associations said.
“We also call on FIFA to initiate a comprehensive and independent review of its governance framework to determine whether it ensures the independence, checks and balances, transparency and accountability that were intended when FIFA adopted its reform programme in 2016.”
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