“Infantino must go”, said the Vice President of the German FA, giving three reasons

Gianni Infantino should leave the FIFA presidency “unconditionally”, according to Hans-Joachim Watzke,

The vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB), Hans-Joachim Watzke, has stated that Gianni Infantino must leave the FIFA presidency, “no exceptions”.

He spoke Thursday at a festival dedicated to artificial intelligence in Berlin.

The DFB is one of the few federations that has not signed a letter of support for Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president within six months.

“He has to go, no matter if there are any buts,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke, who said the three points in particular counted against the Swiss.

The first is the FIFA Peace Prize, launched by Infantino and awarded in December 2025 to US President Donald Trump, who is close to Infantino, during the 2026 World Cup draw.

Infantino “created this prize himself, and he himself decided it,” Watzke said.

“You can’t create something yourself and then announce it, that’s crazy,” Watzke said.

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Watzke also criticized the controversial handling of Folarin Balogun’s red card at this year’s World Cup held in the US, Canada and Mexico.

The American forward was sent off in the last 32 but his automatic one-match suspension was lifted after a phone call from Trump to Infantino.

“It’s impossible that when someone is sent off, the head of state calls the FIFA president, and amazingly, everything is immediately cancelled. That’s crazy,” Watzke said.

The third issue was the project, unveiled on July 28 and canceled four days later, to create a commercial company open to private investors and become the focal point of the uprising against Infantino.

“It’s absolutely crazy,” Watzke said. “No one knows about it, his vice president at FIFA knows nothing, the Board knows nothing.”

DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said earlier this week in an interview that it was time for Infantino to depart.

“The relationship of trust with Gianni Infantino, under this FIFA leadership, has of course been completely destroyed,” he said.

“It is important for this Infantino system to end.”

For now, Infantino is the only candidate for FIFA presidency in the election scheduled for 18 March 2027, with nominations open until 18 November.