{"id":42934,"date":"2026-08-18T08:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42934"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T08:46:24","slug":"rights-group-urges-fifa-to-block-infantino-re-election-bid","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rights-group-urges-fifa-to-block-infantino-re-election-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights group urges FIFA to block Infantino re-election bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Human rights organisation FairSquare has urged International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to rule that Gianni Infantino is ineligible to seek another term as president, arguing he has already served the maximum three terms permitted under the body\u2019s statutes.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">FIFA presidents are limited to three terms in office. However, in 2022 Infantino successfully argued that his first spell in charge, which began when he was elected at an Extraordinary Congress in 2016 following Sepp Blatter\u2019s resignation, should not count towards that limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">In a letter sent to FIFA\u2019s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) as reported by The Athletic, FairSquare said that interpretation was inconsistent with FIFA statutes.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cThe complaint we have filed provides clear evidence that this is a clear breach of the rules and one that sets a very dangerous precedent,\u201d FairSquare director Nicholas McGeehan told Reuters.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cThe rules state clearly that three presidential terms is the maximum allowed, FIFA can\u2019t simply circumvent this rule, which serves as a check on presidential power, by saying that his first term doesn\u2019t count.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Infantino is facing mounting scrutiny ahead of next year\u2019s FIFA Congress, where he is expected to seek re-election for the 2027-31 cycle. The vote is scheduled to take place in Morocco on March 18.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15353,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-42934","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"FIFA's Gianni Infantino","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42935,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42934\/revisions\/42935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}