Timeline of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA leadership implosion after World Cup sell-off

Gianni Infantino’s future as the head of FIFA will ultimately be decided by each of the organisation’s 211 member nations.

Unless an emergency election — known as an Extraordinary Congress — is called, his leadership will be determined at the next Presidential Election at the FIFA Congress to be held in Morrocco on March 17, next year.

An Extraordinary Congress can only be called by the 37-member FIFA Council, or if 20 per cent of the 211 nations — 43 members — issue a written request that that one be held.

If that does not happen, presidential candidates expecting to run against Mr Infantino in March will need to be named by November 18.

According to FIFA’s rules, each member nation has a single vote — regardless of size, population or influence and success in football.

FIFA presidents are allowed to remain as leader for three terms consecutively, but no longer.

Mr Infantino has already been re-elected twice consecutively after he ran unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

He also led for three years before that after he replaced Sepp Blatter amid FIFA’s notorious corruption scandal, but those years were not considered as a complete presidential term.

Candidates who could run against Mr Infantino would need to be endorsed by at least five member nations.

If there is just a single opponent against Mr Infantino, the eventual victor would need to be elected with 50 per cent of the 211 votes.

If there are more than two candidates in the race, run-off votes are held to reduce the number to a final duo.