FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Thursday he is committed to fostering a new culture of openness at football’s governing body, insisting the effort is "not about generating positive headlines.”
Two months after a bitter rift erupted in global football over Infantino’s now-abandoned $4.2 billion plan to sell the rights to the World Cup, the FIFA president has offered his critics an independent review of the organization’s governance and decision-making processes.
"I have received positive messages about it from different parts of the world, and it is important that we keep listening to each other,” Infantino wrote in an Instagram post from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the Arabian Gulf Cup is being held.
Infantino will chair a FIFA Council meeting Oct. 15, when the 37-member body is expected to consider a proposal for consultations with all 211 member associations and the six continental confederations on "how to further strengthen FIFA’s decision-making processes.”
FIFA’s 211 member associations effectively own the Switzerland-based nonprofit governing body, which has built up at least $5 billion in cash reserves following the financial success of the 2026 men’s World Cup in North America.
FIFA’s ruling council includes three vice presidents, European football leader Aleksander Ceferin, North America’s Victor Montagliani and Asia’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who have led opposition to Infantino during the furor over his proposal to create a commercial spinoff part-owned by investors fronted by Josh Kushner.
"There must be a culture of dialogue, of listening to each other and respecting one another,” Infantino wrote Thursday about the council meeting in Zurich. "This is not about generating positive headlines, it is about doing what is right for the game.”
Infantino’s presidency since 2016 has generated much of the turmoil over his proposals for multibillion-dollar commercial plans without fully consulting continental bodies such as UEFA, which has succeeded in stopping them.
FIFA has often appeared to have an executive-style, one-man leadership as Infantino has built closer ties to U.S. President Donald Trump around this year’s World Cup. FIFA created a peace prize and awarded it to Trump last year and allowed United States striker Folarin Balogun to evade a mandatory ban at the tournament after an intervention from the White House.
Infantino’s secretive plan to sell at least 20% of FIFA’s commercial rights in a deal anchored by Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law, provoked the football body’s biggest crisis since anti-corruption arrests in 2015 that led to trials in New York.
The 211 national federations were offered $20 million each to approve the creation of the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary. UEFA, North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation countered by saying FIFA could afford to give each federation a $10 million dividend from its reserves.
Now Infantino, who faces an election challenge ahead of a March 18 vote by FIFA members in Morocco, insists he is ready to listen to football officials.
"I have never been more determined and committed to doing that,” he wrote Thursday on Instagram. "FIFA is always engaged. I am always engaged and I want to hear how we can continue to grow football for the benefit of everybody, everywhere.”