The Dutch Football Association, the KNVB, has said it no longer has confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino and wants both new leadership and wider reform of world football’s governing body from 2027.
In a strongly worded statement published on Sunday, the KNVB said FIFA needed “a new leader” at the next presidential election, scheduled for March 2027, but stressed that changing the president alone would not be enough.
“The governance of FIFA must also change,” the federation said.
The KNVB noted that it had backed Infantino at the last presidential election, but said that support had never been unconditional. It said it had called for progress in three areas: good governance, human rights and sustainability, and stronger international co-operation.
As a founding member of FIFA in 1904, the Dutch federation said it felt a particular responsibility towards international football and wanted to help improve the game from within. However, it said trust had now broken down.
According to the statement, the KNVB sees an excessive concentration of power in the hands of the FIFA president and says the line between the president and the organisation itself has become too blurred.
The federation added that the now-abandoned plan to sell parts of FIFA to private investors had marked a turning point in its relationship with Infantino.
It said withdrawing that proposal had been necessary, but was not enough to restore lost trust.
The KNVB said it had set out both its position and its vision for FIFA’s future in a letter to UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin.
It said it wanted to build a new direction for FIFA together with the world’s 211 national associations and confederations, based on three priorities: good governance, putting football’s social role at the centre of decision-making, and increasing investment in the global game.
The Dutch federation also called for an international football summit on the future of FIFA and said it was ready to host the event in Amsterdam, which it described as an iconic city in FIFA’s history.
