La Liga President Tebas Joins Growing Chorus Calling for Gianni Infantino Fifa Resignation
La Liga president Tebas joins Uefa and FA in calling for Gianni Infantino’s Fifa resignation. Crisis deepens as global football governance faces unprecedented pressure.
La Liga President Tebas Joins Growing Chorus Calling for Gianni Infantino Fifa Resignation
SEO Title: Gianni Infantino Fifa Resignation | La Liga Boss Leads Calls, London
Deck: As pressure over the Gianni Infantino Fifa resignation crisis intensifies across August 2026, La Liga president Javier Tebas has become the latest senior football figure to declare the embattled Fifa president’s tenure finished, with Uefa, the Football Association, and now La Liga aligned against a leader overseeing an institution of more than 200 member associations.
Global football governance entered a new phase of turbulence this August when La Liga president Javier Tebas publicly declared that the Gianni Infantino Fifa resignation question is no longer a matter of if but when — and that the deeper problem extends far beyond one individual. Organised around the fallout from a collapsed private-investment plan that would have seen stakes in the Fifa World Cup sold to outside investors, the crisis has drawn condemnation from Uefa, the Football Association, and now the body that oversees one of the world’s most-watched club football leagues. Tebas, who has held the La Liga presidency since 2013, is among the most senior sporting administrators to characterise Infantino’s position as untenable, telling French newspaper Le Monde that “the Infantino era is over.” What remains contested is the timeline, the succession, and whether structural reform will follow any change in leadership.
Weeks Into The Crisis, Fifa’s Governing Authority Is Already Under Strain
With pressure accumulating across multiple fronts throughout late July and early August 2026, Fifa finds itself in a governance dispute unlike any since the corruption scandals of the mid-2010s. The immediate trigger was a plan, developed under Infantino’s direction, to attract private investment into a commercial vehicle that would manage Fifa’s competitions and sell equity stakes in World Cup broadcasting and revenue rights to outside parties. The plan collapsed without being enacted.
This is not a simple internal disagreement over financial strategy. What has emerged is a crisis of institutional trust, a challenge to presidential authority, a test of European football’s collective leverage, and a contested argument about who controls the future of the sport’s most valuable asset, the World Cup.
Fifa subsequently confirmed it “will not proceed” with the plan. Infantino issued a formal apology to national associations on Wednesday over the manner in which the proposal was developed — a concession that critics interpreted not as resolution but as confirmation that the process had been flawed from the start. The Fifa presidency, an office Infantino has held since 2016, is now under scrutiny from multiple directions simultaneously, with Uefa’s threat of a World Cup boycott remaining active despite the apology.
From Private Equity Schemes To Departure Payments, Multiple Fronts Of Scrutiny Are Now Open
Beyond the collapsed investment plan, a separate and politically damaging disclosure has added to pressure on Infantino’s position. Uefa confirmed that a “departure payment” was made to a female employee who is alleged to have been in a romantic relationship with Infantino during his earlier tenure as Uefa general secretary. Infantino denied the claims. The timing of the disclosure — arriving while Infantino was already under fire over the World Cup investment plan — sharpened the collective call for his exit.
According to reporting by PA Media and dpa, speaking to Le Monde, Tebas framed his assessment not as a reaction to recent events alone but as a verdict built over years of observation: “I’m not saying this because of recent events; I have noticed this style of management for a long time, though everyone else seems to be discovering it only now.” His critique extended to the structural impact of Infantino’s leadership on the sport’s competitive ecosystem. “Gianni Infantino is not someone who contributes to the growth of football. On the contrary, his projects are destroying the very essence of the sport: the national leagues. Football is not limited to the elite.”
Associations from Mexico and Argentina have moved in the opposite direction, expressing public support for Infantino — a reminder that the push for his removal is not unanimous and that Fifa’s 200-plus member base does not speak with one voice on the question of football governance reform.
Behind The Resignation Calls Is An Argument About Structural Reform, Not Just Personnel
The real story here is not whether Infantino survives this particular episode, but whether the institutional conditions that produced it will change. Tebas was explicit on this point, warning against a scenario in which leadership changes but the underlying system does not: “The old system can persist even when the people change. Let’s hope things truly change, that a new leader arrives, and that new governance is established at Fifa.”
For Tebas and others pressing for accountability, the episode has exposed what they describe as a deeper absence of checks within football’s global governing body. “This episode is only the tip of the iceberg of what has been going on within an institution, Fifa, but also more broadly in football, where there are no real governance policies. And the problem is not limited to one person; it is about an entire system.”
Fifa, for its part, pushed back against the criticism, accusing Infantino’s opponents of attempting to remove him from office through external pressure rather than through the legitimate re-election process — effectively framing the calls for resignation as a procedural end-run around the membership’s democratic authority. That counterargument has not been sufficient to quiet the criticism from Uefa or the Football Association, both of which have maintained their calls for Infantino to step down.
Tebas’s Tenure And Infantino’s Disputed Record Give The Standoff Institutional Weight
The choice of Javier Tebas as the latest and most prominent voice calling for Infantino’s exit is itself a strategic development worth noting. As a sitting league president who has governed La Liga since 2013 — a tenure that overlaps substantially with Infantino’s time at both Uefa and Fifa — Tebas carries institutional standing that distinguishes his statement from commentary by former officials or outside observers.
Sourcing materials from the Le Monde interview project that Tebas sees the succession question as genuinely open: “What remains to be seen is when that will take effect and how the succession will unfold. I hope it is not just a matter of swapping out some people for others but of a genuine overhaul.” The official external framing from Infantino’s remaining supporters — including the Mexico and Argentina associations — positions the criticism as factionally motivated interference. Public information confirms the crisis is jointly driven by governance concerns over the private investment plan and reputational concerns over the Uefa departure payment disclosure, with no resolution confirmed at the time of writing.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Gianni Infantino Fifa Resignation Crisis
Why are people calling for Gianni Infantino to resign from Fifa? Calls for Gianni Infantino to resign from Fifa in August 2026 centre on two issues: a failed plan to sell private equity stakes in the Fifa World Cup, which Infantino developed and Fifa subsequently abandoned, and a Uefa disclosure that a departure payment was made to a female employee alleged to have been in a relationship with Infantino during his time as Uefa general secretary — a claim Infantino has denied.
Who has called for Infantino to resign as Fifa president? As of August 2026, Uefa, the Football Association, and La Liga president Javier Tebas have publicly called for Gianni Infantino to resign as Fifa president, while the national associations of Mexico and Argentina have expressed support for him remaining in office.
What was the Fifa private investment plan that sparked the crisis? The Fifa private investment plan involved creating a commercial entity to run Fifa’s competitions and sell stakes in World Cup revenues to private investors. The plan was developed under Infantino’s direction and was subsequently abandoned after Fifa announced it “will not proceed,” prompting Infantino to issue a formal apology to national associations over how the plan was developed.
Is there a European boycott of the Fifa World Cup? As of August 2026, a European threat to boycott the Fifa World Cup remains in place and has not been withdrawn despite Infantino’s public apology to national associations. Uefa has maintained its call for Infantino to resign as a condition associated with the boycott discussion.
What did La Liga president Javier Tebas say about Infantino? Speaking to French newspaper Le Monde in August 2026, La Liga president Javier Tebas said: “For me, the Infantino era is over,” adding that Infantino’s projects are “destroying the very essence of the sport: the national leagues,” and that he has observed this management style “for a long time.” Tebas also called for structural governance reform at Fifa, not simply a change of leadership.
How has Fifa responded to the calls for Infantino’s resignation? Fifa responded to calls for Gianni Infantino’s resignation by accusing his critics of attempting to remove him without going through the legitimate re-election process, framing the campaign against him as an effort to weaken his authority outside of Fifa’s democratic membership procedures.
What did the Uefa departure payment disclosure involve? Uefa confirmed in August 2026 that a departure payment was made to a female employee who is alleged to have been in a relationship with Gianni Infantino during his tenure as Uefa general secretary before he became Fifa president. Infantino denied the claims. The disclosure coincided with and compounded the pressure from the collapsed World Cup investment plan.
A Crisis That Has Outlasted One Apology And One Abandoned Plan
The sequence of events across July and August 2026 — a collapsed private investment scheme, a formal presidential apology, a Uefa departure payment disclosure, and coordinated calls for resignation from Uefa, the Football Association, and La Liga — has produced a governance crisis at Fifa that Infantino’s supporters have not yet been able to contain. Tebas’s intervention adds the weight of a major league administrator to what was already a coalition of European football institutions. Whether the pressure converts into an actual departure, a re-election challenge, or a reform process remains, as Tebas put it, a question of timing and succession rather than of outcome.
For more information on the Gianni Infantino Fifa resignation developments, readers may refer to the following sources:
- PA Media / dpa wire reporting (original sourcing for the Tebas Le Monde interview)
- Fifa official communications: fifa.com
- Uefa official communications: uefa.com
- La Liga official communications: laliga.com
- Free Malaysia Today (FMT) Sports coverage: freemalaysiatoday.com/category/sports
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