The most powerful domestic league executive in football just lobbed a grenade at the sport’s governing body. La Liga president Javier Tebas accused FIFA of “destroying the football industry” in a blistering interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, calling for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to step down immediately.
The power struggle behind the pitch
Tebas’s core complaint centers on what he sees as FIFA’s relentless expansion of international competitions at the expense of domestic leagues. The specific flashpoint is a proposal to balloon the World Cup from the already-expanded 48-team format debuting in the 2026 tournament to 64 teams as early as 2030.
This isn’t a new fight for the La Liga boss. He previously pushed for the elimination of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup by mid-2025, a battle he effectively lost.
And the math on opposition isn’t encouraging for Tebas. Over 200 of FIFA’s 211 member associations reportedly support Infantino for a fourth term. Tebas himself acknowledged that the absence of credible opposition makes another Infantino term essentially inevitable.
