Rights groups demand FIFA overhaul amid leadership crisis

A coalition of human rights organizations led by Amnesty International and the Sport & Rights Alliance issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling on FIFA to implement sweeping governance reforms, arguing that the world football body's ongoing leadership crisis exposes deeper systemic failures to protect human rights.

Demands for Structural Change

The statement, released amid growing turmoil over FIFA President Gianni Infantino's leadership, outlines five demands including re-establishing a permanent independent Human Rights Advisory Board, overhauling the FIFA Ethics Committee, and adopting a time-bound human rights strategy.amnestyusa+1

"The person who leads FIFA matters a great deal, but the bigger problem is systemic," said Andrea Florence, Executive Director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. "This crisis must spur long-overdue reforms to finally embed human rights protections at the heart of world football."amnestyusa

The coalition also called for binding human rights commitments in host agreements for the 2030 and 2034 Men's World Cups, and a remedy fund to compensate migrant workers harmed during construction for the 2022 Qatar tournament.dublinpeople+1

A Crisis Years in the Making

The statement arrives as FIFA faces its most turbulent period since the 2015 U.S. Department of Justice indictments. Infantino withdrew his controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal in late July after UEFA threatened a European boycott of the World Cup. Since then, European Leagues, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and multiple national associations have called for governance reform or expressed no confidence in Infantino's leadership.nbcsports+2

On August 5, Infantino held what was described as a "crisis meeting" with senior staff in Rabat, Morocco, while UEFA maintained it had lost confidence in FIFA's leadership.dailyherald+1

Unfinished Human Rights Business

The organizations noted that FIFA disbanded its independent Human Rights Advisory Board under Infantino and never implemented most of its recommendations. "FIFA has still not financially compensated families of thousands of migrant workers who died to deliver the 2022 World Cup in Qatar," said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.amnestyusa

The groups also criticized Infantino's relationship with the media, pointing to a press conference at the opening of the 2026 World Cup where he told journalists to "chill and relax" — his first press conference since 2023. FIFA elections are scheduled for March 2027, with growing expectation that Infantino will face a challenge for the presidency.dailyherald+2