Over 100,000 people have signed a mass ethics complaint against FIFA President Gianni Infantino, making it one of the largest organized protests against a sitting leader of global sport’s most powerful governing body. The campaign, branded “Reboot FIFA,” accuses Infantino of breaching FIFA’s own political neutrality rules through a series of moves that read less like sports governance and more like a political operation.
The complaint, orchestrated by human rights NGO FairSquare, was originally filed with FIFA’s Ethics Committee back in December 2025. It went public in June 2026, timed to build maximum pressure ahead of the 2026 men’s World Cup.
The Trump connection
At the heart of the complaint is Infantino’s relationship with US President Donald Trump. The FIFA president lobbied for Trump to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in October 2025. Then came the FIFA Peace Prize. In December 2025, Infantino awarded the inaugural honor to Trump, a decision that critics say turned FIFA into a vehicle for political endorsement rather than an impartial steward of the world’s most popular sport.
FIFA’s own statutes require the organization to maintain political neutrality. The complaint argues that Infantino’s actions constituted a direct violation of the rules he’s supposed to uphold.
