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2026 FIFA World Cup
12JUN

MEPs widen ethics case against Infantino

2 min read
09:25UTC

FairSquare expanded its ethics complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino to name the Balogun reversal, with 50 MEPs writing to back it.

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Key takeaway

Fifty MEPs and a rights group put Infantino's political neutrality under formal ethics scrutiny.

FairSquare, a human-rights research group, expanded its ethics complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino to name the Balogun reversal , and 50 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wrote to FIFA's ethics committee backing it 1. The original complaint, filed in December, set out four dated breaches of FIFA's Article 15 political-neutrality rule, from a FIFA Peace Prize awarded to Donald Trump to an Instagram post lobbying for his Nobel 2.

Infantino denies steering the case. He says he told Trump only that 'the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies', and that he learned of the original suspension after it was released 3. Trump's account is narrower: 'All I did, I asked for a review, because I didn't think it was a foul.' The gap between a president asking for a review and a ban lifting within a day is what FairSquare wants the ethics committee to examine.

This track has run further than the courtroom one. Kaveh Afrasiabi's $1bn lawsuit over Iran's exit still has no hearing.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

FairSquare is a London-based human rights group that first complained about FIFA president Gianni Infantino's friendliness with US President Donald Trump back in December. It has now added the Balogun case to that complaint, and 50 elected members of the European Parliament, politicians representing EU citizens, have written to FIFA backing it. FIFA's own rules say officials must stay neutral between governments; the complaint argues Infantino has not. Infantino denies steering any decision, and Trump says he only asked for a review.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

FIFA's Article 15 political-neutrality rule bars officials from favouring any government, but enforcement depends on FIFA's own ethics committee investigating its own president, a structural conflict shared by many sports federations that lack an external body with binding power over the executive.

The European Parliament's involvement is itself structurally limited: MEPs can write letters and hold hearings but have no jurisdiction over FIFA, a Swiss-registered association, so their leverage runs through reputational pressure rather than any legal instrument.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    The expanded FairSquare complaint gives the European Parliament a live hook into FIFA governance mid-tournament, distinct from any CAS process the RBFA might pursue.

  • Risk

    A formal ethics probe naming Infantino directly would be the most serious governance challenge of his presidency since the 2015 corruption scandal that removed Sepp Blatter.

Sources:Africa Top Sports·FairSquare
Mentions:FairSquare →Gianni Infantino →European Parliament →Donald Trump →FIFA →Parliament →Instagram →FIFA Peace Prize →Iran →London →
First Reported In

Update #36 · All three hosts out as Belgium beat USA

Africa Top Sports· 7 Jul 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Watchdog renews complaint on FIFA prize
FairSquare's original ethics complaint against Infantino was expanded to name the Balogun reversal.
Occurred 29 Jun 2026
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FIFA clears Balogun for Belgium tie
The Balogun reversal after the reported Trump call is the new fact FairSquare added to its complaint.
Occurred 6 Jul 2026
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This Event
MEPs widen ethics case against Infantino
The complaint moves the Balogun dispute from the pitch into a formal test of FIFA's political-neutrality rules.
Led to
FairSquare takes Infantino fight to IOC
FairSquare's 6 July expansion of the complaint to name the Balogun reversal preceded the 8 July IOC referral.
Occurred 8 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
French Football Federation
French Football Federation
The FFF called an 11:00 CEST press conference for 28 July, at its Paris headquarters, following an extraordinary executive committee meeting, at which Zinedine Zidane is expected to be presented as head coach succeeding Didier Deschamps. As of this writing no communique confirms the appointment, contract length or start date.
Morocco
Morocco
Morocco is pushing for the 2030 final at its Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca, a planned 115,000-seat venue that would be the world's largest football stadium on completion. The venue is contested by a Spanish petition for the Santiago Bernabeu, and FIFA has fixed neither the venue nor the tournament's proposed 64-team format.
FIFA
FIFA
FIFA's first tournament report, published 27 July, itemises nearly 300,000 accredited personnel, 73,700 security staff and 300,000 square metres of custom-grown turf, with no revenue or cost figure attached. As a Swiss association answering to its own Congress rather than a treasury, FIFA has followed the same operational-before-financial sequence it used after Qatar 2022.
Javier Tebas / La Liga
Javier Tebas / La Liga
La Liga president Javier Tebas said on 21 July that FIFA's system is rotten from the root and that Gianni Infantino's time as president has, in his words, concluded. Tebas has no vote in FIFA's process, so days after the IOC declined jurisdiction over a separate ethics complaint, he used the only instrument he has.
Mexico City government
Mexico City government
Head of government Clara Brugada presented a closing report on 22 July crediting the tournament with 44 billion pesos of economic activity, 2,000-plus accelerated public works and 100,000 formal jobs in June alone. The city has not published the method behind that figure, and three other Mexican bodies count the same five weeks differently.
Town of Foxborough
Town of Foxborough
Foxborough answered Kraft Group's June lawsuit on 7 July with a 61-page counterclaim, calling the stadium's owners 'a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations' trying to shift its $7.8 million security bill onto taxpayers. The town says its licensing power and its billing power run through the same board, and it wants the court to award its own costs too.