The Norwegian Football Federation is the first federation to file an official complaint against FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Its president, Lise Klavenes, has repeatedly and strongly criticized FIFA’s management and, in fact, called for Infantino’s resignation last summer, citing a loss of confidence in his leadership, partly due to the partial sale of the World Cup.
Now, Norway is taking it a step further by filing two complaints against Infantino and FIFA. Specifically, it is requesting an investigation into three interrelated issues: the awarding of the Peace Prize to Donald Trump, the controversial lifting of the suspension of American forward Folarin Balogun during the 2026 World Cup, as well as the entire process surrounding the FIFA Forward Enterprise and the proposed sale of a portion of the World Cup to investment funds.
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“FIFA Forward Enterprise is an issue concerning FIFA’s governance, but it is also linked to the other two cases, as it may raise issues of conflict of interest and abuse of power,” Clavenes told The Times.
“There is a common thread linking all three cases, and it concerns the same political regime.” Clavenes, a former international soccer player, argued that Infantino faces serious questions regarding transparency.
“These are three completely different cases in terms of the facts, but they all have one common element that we want to examine,” Klavenes said. “Is this an abuse of power or an abuse of position? Is there a violation of the neutrality policy?
Are all these actions in accordance with FIFA’s governance rules, given that the FIFA Council is supposed to be the strategic body and the president should not, in essence, have unilateral authority?”he added, speaking about the case.
Norway’s complaints have been filed with FIFA’s Ethics and Compliance Committees, which will examine whether Infantino bypassed the prescribed procedures in the three cases described and alleged. As part of the investigation, it will also be examined whether the FIFA president abused his authority.
This process begins just a few days before the next meeting of the FIFA Council. Infantino’s meeting with the governing body of the world soccer federation is scheduled for October 15 in Zurich, Switzerland.
*photo source: AP
