Carney says he no longer has confidence in Gianni Infantino’s ability to run FIFA

Prime Minister Mark Carney and FIFA President Gianni Infantino at a World Cup event in Ottawa in May 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia

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Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday joined an international chorus of criticism of Infantino, saying he no longer had confidence in his ability to lead FIFA.

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“Certainly I don’t have confidence in Mr Infantino, after this point, given what transpired,” Carney told reporters when asked about FIFA’s chief and his now-shelved plan to open the World Cup up to private investment.

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Infantino has come under increasing pressure, even from within his organization, over his handling of the proposal, and calls for him to step down have grown since he abandoned it last Saturday.

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Carney said Infantino’s reported failure to discuss the plan with FIFA’s senior management team “should be fatal” to his tenure leading world football’s governing body.

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“This is not how you run any business, a small business, let alone something that is a global responsibility like football,” Carney told reporters in Toronto.

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Infantino held emergency talks earlier Wednesday with FIFA directors in Morocco, the 2030 World Cup host, seeking to contain the crisis.

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Infantino had been basking in the afterglow of a highly successful World Cup, the largest ever with 48 teams and co-hosted by three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.

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But his tenure is facing an unprecedented threat amid a wave of global fury over the scrapped plan, which called for the creation of a new commercial subsidiary, called the FIFA Forward Enterprise, to run events such as the World Cup.

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