UEFA delegates exit FIFA Congress after Gianni Infantino arrives late from Donald Trump tour

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European members of the FIFA Council staged a dramatic walk-out at the FIFA Congress in Paraguay on Thursday following the late arrival of President Gianni Infantino.

The eight UEFA members of the FIFA council and a number of European delegates did not return to the congress in the conference centre in Asuncion, including UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and the English Football Association (FA) President Debbie Hewitt.

The exit followed a three-hour delay to the Congress, because FIFA President Infantino was late arriving for his own event on Thursday morning, having prioritized meetings with President Donald Trump in Doha and Qatar this week.

This included rescheduling the FIFA Council, which should have been in person in Paraguay on Tuesday, but was instead made a virtual meet last Friday.

The exit did not appear to be travel-related as key flights returning to Europe were not scheduled until early in the evening from Asuncion, although some travel by private jet. On Thursday morning, sources familiar with the situation, who declined to comment publicly to protect relationships, had said that some European representatives had been giving consideration to exiting the event at the originally scheduled end-time of 2pm, in a symbolic protest at Infantino prioritising meetings in the Middle East this week.

His flight to Asuncion still appeared to be in the air for the original local start time of 9:30am in Paraguay, delaying the event until 12:30pm.

(Daniel Duarte/AFP via Getty Images)

A statement from Lise Klaveness, President of the Norwegian FA, who also joined the walkout, read: “The delayed arrival of the FIFA President at the 75th FIFA Congress is disappointing. The annual congress is the single most important body to ensure good governance of international football. The situation is concerning. 210 member associations have traveled from all over the world to participate at this Congress here in Paraguay, expecting professional leadership and dialogue at the highest level.”

This is the second time in a row that Ceferin has left after the mid-Congress coffee break. Last year in Bangkok, Ceferin missed Infantino’s closing remarks and the vote to decide the hosts of the 2027 Women’s World Cup, where the European bid of Belgium, Netherlands and Germany were defeated by Brazil. This walk-out, however, was significantly more wide ranging as representatives on the FIFA council from England, Belgium, Germany Hungary, Cyprus, Montenegro and Romania exited the room.

President of the Montenegrin FA Dejan Savicevic, President of the Hungarian FA Sandor Csanyi, President of the Cypriot FA Georgios Koumas, President of the Romanian Football Assocation Razvan Burleanu, and Belgium FA president Pascale Van Damme all did not return for the second half of the Congress.

The FIFA Congress, world football’s governing body’s legislative body, meets annually, and representatives of member associations discuss and vote on the game’s important issues.

Infantino, who President Trump has described as “my good friend for a long time”, was present for meetings that took place this week between Trump with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

Speaking in February, the FIFA president defended his close relationship with Trump, describing it as “crucial for the success of a World Cup”. The United States will co-host the 2026 tournament with Canada and Mexico.

While Infantino was appearing to form part of the U.S. President’s extended entourage, representatives from global soccer associations met in Asunción for a week of meetings in Infantino’s absence.

This includes Presidents and CEOs or general secretaries of every national federation. Infantino also missed a dinner hosted by the Paraguayan state officials on Wednesday evening, but was due to arrive on Thursday morning in time to address the FIFA Congress.

Klaveness added: “I understand the frustration and disappointment from European FIFA members. The NFF Vice President and myself chose to leave the Congress venue together with several European colleagues at 2pm as initially planned for a respectful departure. The Norwegian Secretary General Karl-Petter Löken stayed to express the Norwegian support of the case of the Palestinian FA on the Congress Agenda.

“We now expect FIFA to explain this situation to its members and ensure that the voices of the member associations are heard and respected going forward.”

Infantino did apologise at the start of Congress for being late. He said: “As president of FIFA, my responsibility is to take decisions in interests of organization. I decided to spend the last two days in the Middle East knowing the 2034 World Cup will be in Saudi Arabia and the World Cup in 2022 was in Qatar. The 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup will be in USA, Canada and Mexico. Some important discussions took place with regards to the World Cup and I felt I needed to be there to represent football and all of you. We had an issue with our flight which made this delay happen — apologies, sorry, and I am looking forward to spending time with you here.”

The English walkout on Thursday is particularly dramatic considering England is part of a joint home nations bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 2035 — and they are the sole bidder for the tournament. The English FA chief executive Mark Bullingham did remain in the room to ensure the association retained its vote on matters raised at the Congress.

Those who left missed a passionate speech from the Palestinian Football Association, who were seeking to have the Israeli federation suspended for an alleged breach of FIFA statues in a dispute over Israeli teams they argue are based in Palestinian West Bank territory, as well as budgets reports and a presentation from FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger.

FIFA and UEFA have been approached for comment.

 (Top photo: Daniel Duarte/AFP via Getty Images)

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