FIFA Term Limit Dispute Puts Infantino’s 2027 Bid in Question

FIFA’s interpretation of its presidential term limit could allow Gianni Infantino to seek a fourth term in March 2027, but former governance committee chair Miguel Maduro says the statutes bar him from doing so. No ruling resolving the competing interpretations is reported. FIFA’s Council unanimously decided in December 2022 that Infantino’s first period in office, from 2016 to 2019, would not count toward the three-term limit. The decision treated his 2019 election as the start of his first full term and his 2023 re-election as his second, leaving him eligible under FIFA’s interpretation to run again. Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer and former chair of FIFA’s Governance Committee, said the statutes make no distinction between a full term and a shortened one. Infantino became president in 2016 after Sepp Blatter resigned and was re-elected in 2019 and 2023. Maduro said those three periods mean another term would exceed the limit in Article 33, which bars a president from serving more than three terms. The dispute concerns how that rule applies to Infantino’s initial period, which completed the remainder of Blatter’s mandate. FIFA’s Council determined that it should not count,...