France joins the holdouts
Fifty-five members, one vote each, and a plan almost nobody in Europe wanted. The FIFA Forward Enterprise scheme, pushed by Gianni Infantino, set off a rare public revolt at the end of July, with UEFA and several European associations raising the threat of a World Cup boycott if the Swiss-Italian president kept going.
The French Football Federation had said nothing until now. So had Italy and Spain. That silence was never neutrality. According to L’Equipe, Philippe Diallo will not support Infantino’s project as it currently stands.
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Diallo is taking it to his board first
The FFF president does not want this landing as a personal decision. He is holding off until the federation’s next executive committee meeting on 8 September, where French football’s leadership will settle the line together.
There is a second reason to wait, and it is a bigger one. Nobody knows who is going to run against the incumbent. Pulling votes away from a candidate is difficult when there is no other name on the ballot. Infantino, elected in 2016 out of the wreckage of Sepp Blatter’s exit, has never faced a serious challenger at any re-election.
France is not walking away from world football’s governing body either. The French Under-20 women’s side will play at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which starts on 5 September.
The real date is March 2027, in Rabat
The FIFA presidential election takes place at Congress in Rabat, Morocco, in March 2027. Every federation gets one vote, so France counts for exactly as much as the smallest member association on the list.
That arithmetic is the problem for Europe’s rebels. UEFA has 55 members out of FIFA’s 211. Even a unanimous continental revolt does not move the result. What it can do is bruise Infantino in front of sponsors, broadcasters and anyone still weighing the institution’s credibility.
The FFF is sending a signal rather than casting a ballot. What matters between now and Rabat is how many federations run the same calculation.
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