Norway call on Infantino to resign but two countries back Fifa president

Norway have called on Fifa president Gianni Infantino to resign following his aborted attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, but Mexico and Argentina have voiced their support for the 56-year-old.

Norway have gone a step further than the football associations of England, Wales, Croatia and Albania, all of whom have withdrawn support for Infantino without explicitly calling for him to resign.

"He [Infantino] does not have the institutional trust required to govern Fifa stably in the times we are in," Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness said on Friday.

"There is no going back for Gianni Infantino. The international football cooperation is very much in trouble, and we must have a reason to get together now, and we want to ask the Fifa president to resign now.

"We will see which other countries eventually join in, if that becomes the strategy from the Uefa board. We are not going to ask for an extraordinary [Uefa board] meeting, we will ask him to resign in our dialogue with Fifa."

Klaveness, who is a qualified lawyer, went through a list of concerns that the Norwegian FA has expressed to Fifa during her four-year tenure.

Among them were questions around the awarding of tournaments, the inaugural Fifa peace prize that was awarded to US President ​Donald Trump in December, and the overturning of a ban for American forward Folarin Balogun during the recent World Cup following a phone call from Trump.

Fifa has been approached for comment.

Meanwhile, earlier on Friday the Mexican Football Federation broke ranks with its regional governing body Concacaf to come out in support of Infantino.

Concacaf, which runs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, called for a "comprehensive reckoning" of Infantino's presidency after he aborted plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

However, 2026 World Cup co-hosts Mexico have backed Infantino's leadership amid widespread calls for him to resign.

"The FMF [Mexican FA] supports president Infantino's leadership in continuing to promote the development of football through institutional strengthening," a statement read.

It echoed a statement from Conmebol - South America's governing body - in saying it would reject any attempt to remove Infantino without a vote involving all 211 Fifa members.

Uefa says boycott may still go ahead as FA withdraws Infantino support

Uefa boycott right thing for future of game - Bronze

If Infantino goes, who might replace him as Fifa president?

However, Conmebol did "express its concern about the repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue or the institutional mechanisms provided for dealing with this type of situation".

Meanwhile, the football association of 2026 World Cup runners-up Argentina praised Infantino for recognising and apologising for his "errors".

It described his decade-long tenure as Fifa president as "centred on the development of soccer worldwide and institutional strength based on a clear, stable, and transparent governance model".

Infantino is unanimously backed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), but faces opposition from European football's governing Uefa and Concacaf.

European teams could still boycott the World Cup as Uefa said its conditions had not been met, despite Infantino's plan being aborted.

Uefa has already said it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal a "shabby, back room, opaque deal".

The English FA has sent a letter withdrawing its support for Infantino, while Wales, Albania and Croatia are among other individual associations to have turned their back on the 56-year-old.

Concacaf described Infantino's proposal as "a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first", and that "this recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behaviour".

However, unlike Uefa, it did not go as far as to say it had lost confidence in the Fifa president.

Before Infantino withdrew his proposal, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said it stood "in solidarity" with Uefa and Concacaf in opposition to the plans.

How the election of a Fifa president works

Ordinarily, Infantino would not be able to stand for re-election in March.

The maximum tenure under Fifa statutes is three four-year terms, and Infantino is hoping to be voted in for a fourth time.

However, after replacing Sepp Blatter in 2016, his first term lasted only three years. He successfully argued this one should not count, which allows him to stand again.