Norway has called for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign following his abandoned attempt to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, while Mexico and Argentina have publicly backed the 56-year-old.
The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) has taken the strongest position yet among European associations opposing Infantino, going further than England, Wales, Croatia and Albania, which have withdrawn their support without explicitly demanding his resignation.
NFF president Lise Klaveness said Infantino no longer has the institutional trust required to lead world football.
“He does not have the institutional trust required to govern FIFA stably in the times we are in,” 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.”
Klaveness added that Norway would raise its demand directly in discussions with FIFA rather than requesting an extraordinary UEFA board meeting.
Klaveness, a qualified lawyer, also highlighted several concerns the Norwegian FA has raised with FIFA during her four-year tenure.
These include questions surrounding the awarding of tournaments, the inaugural FIFA peace prize presented to US President Donald Trump in December and the overturning of a ban involving American forward Folarin Balogun during the recent World Cup following a phone call from Trump.
While opposition to Infantino continues to grow in Europe and North America, several major football nations and confederations remain behind the FIFA president.
The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) broke ranks with regional governing body Concacaf on Friday by publicly supporting Infantino.
Concacaf, which oversees football across North and Central America and the Caribbean, called for a “comprehensive reckoning” of Infantino's presidency after he abandoned plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
Mexico, a co-host of the 2026 World Cup, has instead backed his continued leadership.
“The FMF supports president Infantino's leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening,” the federation said.
The FMF also echoed South American governing body Conmebol by rejecting any attempt to remove Infantino through a process that does not involve FIFA's 211 member associations.
“The FMF will neither recognise nor approve any process convened outside of that institutional framework, and it joins the call made by president Infantino to collectively continue developing football for the benefit of the 211 member associations,” it added.
Conmebol nevertheless expressed concern about what it described as repeated unilateral actions taken without sufficient dialogue or use of established institutional mechanisms.
Argentina's football association has also backed Infantino, praising him for acknowledging and apologising for his “errors”.
The federation described his decade-long tenure as FIFA president as being focused on the global development of football and institutional strength through a clear, stable and transparent governance model.
Infantino also retains unanimous support from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), but faces significant opposition from UEFA and Concacaf.
European teams could still boycott the World Cup, with UEFA insisting its conditions have not been satisfied despite Infantino abandoning the controversial proposal.
“Assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again,” UEFA said.
“These conditions have not been met.”
UEFA has already declared that it has lost confidence in Infantino and described the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”.
The English FA has formally withdrawn its support for Infantino, while Wales, Albania and Croatia are among the other European associations to have distanced themselves from the FIFA president.
Concacaf has also strongly criticised the proposal, describing it as evidence of leadership that had stopped putting football first and part of a wider pattern of governance failures.
However, unlike UEFA, Concacaf has stopped short of formally declaring that it has lost confidence in Infantino.
Before Infantino withdrew the proposal, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also said it stood “in solidarity” with UEFA and Concacaf in opposing the plans.
The increasingly divided response leaves Infantino facing significant pressure from sections of world football, with Norway now openly demanding his resignation while Mexico, Argentina and CAF continue to support his leadership.
