Norway Football Federation president Lise Klaveness has long been a critic of Gianni Infantino. Norway has called on Infantino to resign following his aborted attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, despite support for the FIFA president from Mexico and the head of South America's football governing body.

Norway has gone a step further than the football associations of England, Wales, Croatia, and Albania - all of whom have withdrawn support for Infantino without explicitly calling for the 56-year-old to resign. "He [Infantino] does not have the institutional trust required to govern FIFA stably in the times we are in," Lise Klaveness said on Friday. "There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. The international football cooperation is very much in trouble, and we must have a reason to get together now, and we want to ask the FIFA president to resign now. "We will see which other countries eventually join in if that becomes the strategy from the UEFA board. We are not going to ask for an extraordinary [UEFA board] meeting; we will ask him to resign in our dialogue with FIFA.

Klaveness, who is a qualified lawyer, went through a list of concerns that the Norwegian FA has expressed to FIFA during her four-year tenure. Among them were questions around the awarding of tournaments, the inaugural FIFA peace prize that was awarded to US President Donald Trump in December, and the overturning of a ban for American forward Folarin Balogun during the recent World Cup following a phone call from Trump.

FIFA has been approached for comment. Meanwhile, earlier on Friday, the Mexican Football Federation broke ranks with its regional governing body Concacaf to come out in support of Infantino. Concacaf, which runs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, called for a "comprehensive reckoning" of his presidency after he aborted his controversial proposals. Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a proposal for private investment in its tournaments, including the men's and women's World Cups, through the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) subsidiary. However, 2026 World Cup co-hosts Mexico have backed his leadership amid widespread calls for him to resign. "The FMF [Mexican FA] supports president Infantino's leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening," a statement read.

It echoed a statement from Conmebol - South America's governing body - in saying it would reject any attempt to remove Infantino without a vote involving all 211 FIFA members. However, Conmebol did "express its concern about the repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue or the institutional mechanisms provided for dealing with this type of situation". Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez accompanied Infantino at the inauguration of Colombia's new president Abelardo de la Espriella on Friday. He praised both Infantino's record and the "enormously successful" 2026 World Cup, saying "we stand with Gianni".

Regarding the FIFA presidential election next year, Dominguez added: "We have a very firm, clear position which is to support institutionality. "If there were another candidate who wanted to run, we're in an electoral process, I think it's legitimate for people to come forward, put forward their candidacy, propose an electoral contest, which could be very healthy for football, and we'll see who wins.

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Meanwhile, the football association of 2026 World Cup runners-up Argentina praised Infantino for recognising and apologising for his "errors". It described his decade-long tenure as FIFA president as "centred on the development of soccer worldwide and institutional strength based on a clear, stable, and transparent governance model". Infantino is unanimously backed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), but faces opposition from European football's governing UEFA and Concacaf. European teams could still boycott the World Cup as UEFA said its conditions had not been met, despite Infantino's plan being aborted. UEFA has already said it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the FFE proposal a "shabby, back room, opaque deal".

The English FA has sent a letter withdrawing its support for Infantino, while Wales, Albania, and Croatia are among other individual associations to have turned their back on him. Concacaf described Infantino's proposal as "a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first", and that "this recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour". However, unlike UEFA, it did not go as far as to say it had lost confidence in the FIFA president.

Before Infantino withdrew his proposal, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said it stood "in solidarity" with UEFA and Concacaf in opposition to the plans. This video cannot be played. Why UEFA could still boycott the World Cup. Ordinarily, Infantino would not be able to stand for re-election in March. The maximum tenure under FIFA statutes is three four-year terms, and Infantino is hoping to be voted in for a fourth time. However, after replacing Sepp Blatter in 2016, his first term lasted only three years. He successfully argued this one should not count, which allows him to stand again.

Infantino was re-elected in 2019 and 2023 unopposed, and before the FFE controversy, it looked certain the same would apply in 2027. Now UEFA and Infantino's other opponents must try to find a candidate to stand against him. The deadline for names to be put forward, together with at least five letters of support from member associations, is 18 November. The election, by secret ballot, will then take place at the 77th FIFA Congress in Rabat, Morocco on 18 March. If two candidates stand for election, a simple majority of the 211 member associations is required to win. If there are three or more candidates, 75% of votes is required to win outright. If that threshold is not met, the candidate with the fewest votes is removed and another vote is held. Once the field is reduced to two candidates, it becomes a simple majority.

Unless UEFA can find a way to unseat Infantino, he has seven months to cement his supporter base. One way Infantino has always done this is by jetting off around the world and meeting people. When he was elected in 2016, Infantino declared that UEFA gave him a budget of €500,000 (£430,000), external "to fund flights - mainly flights - around the world" to lobby member associations for votes.

Following Wednesday's meeting of the FIFA management board in Rabat, Infantino jetted off to South America for the inauguration of new Colombian president Abelardo de la Espriella. Another key tool will be the funding of the 211 member associations, which has enabled Infantino to build loyalty around the world. This is especially true among developing nations who cannot afford to pay for football development. Crucially, the latest iteration of Infantino's investment programme, FIFA Forward 3.0, ends in December. It has given all national associations up to $8m (£5.94m) in the latest four-year cycle, a 30% increase on the last one. When announced, FIFA Forward 4.0 may well up the level of funding again.

For this reason, outside of Europe, Infantino still has a great deal of support and would be the favourite to win an election. Infantino's staunchest critics, though a few could break the block vote against him. The African confederation has reaffirmed its unanimous support for Infantino. While the Asian confederation joined UEFA in criticising FFE, it did not issue any statement after the plan was aborted. So far, only Jordan - who did not support Infantino anyway - has said it will not vote for him.

Mexico has already broken away to back the president. With so many small nations in the region which benefit from Infantino's funding, it is unknown how much of the rest of the block will hold. The OFC will not offer a statement until it holds a meeting next month, but earlier this year president Lambert Maltock called Infantino a "leader par excellence" and lauded his investment in grassroots.

A statement issued on Thursday amounted to "do it again and we won't vote for you", but Infantino can still count on Conmebol. Argentina and Paraguay are among the countries to publicly back his re-election.

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