A complaint alleging FIFA president Gianni Infantino has breached rules on political neutrality in his dealings with President Donald Trump has been submitted to the International Olympic Committee.
Human rights nonprofit FairSquare says Infantino, who became an IOC member in 2020, has repeatedly breached the Olympic Charter and the IOC’s code of ethics, most recently in his handling of the Folarin Balogun affair.
The United States striker’s one-match ban was suspended by FIFA’s disciplinary committee, freeing him up to play in their World Cup round-of-16 match against Belgium. That followed a phone call from Trump to Infantino, with Infantino insisting FIFA’s committees are entirely independent.
News of the complaint comes after ESPN reported that dozens of European lawmakers were gathering support to launch an investigation of the FIFA boss in the European Parliament.
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Sources told ESPN that, as first reported by The Times, disciplinary committee chair Mohammad Al Kamali made the key decision to suspend the ban alone, having never been the sole arbiter in any published previous disciplinary cases.
FIFA has offered no explanation of why the ban was suspended.
FairSquare’s complaint alleges five clear breaches of the IOC’s rules on political neutrality, along with “prima facie” evidence of two further serious breaches — including the handling of the Balogun case.
“Gianni Infantino has repeatedly breached the IOC’s rules on political neutrality by offering his political support for the President of the United States, Donald Trump,” FairSquare said in a statement.
Read more:EU lawmakers want Gianni Infantino investigated over Trump contact
“As outlined below, the evidence suggests that Mr Infantino has committed five clear breaches of IOC rules on political neutrality through statements or other clear expressions of support for the US President.
“We have also provided prima facie evidence of two further serious breaches, which we would request that the IOC investigate. The first of these relates to possible acquiescence to political pressure from President Trump to circumvent FIFA’s on-field disciplinary rules during the 2026 men’s World Cup.
“The second of these relates to Mr Infantino’s promotion of a FIFA fan site for the 2026 men’s World Cup, which appears to have been part of a data-harvesting campaign run by entities linked to President Trump.”
In December, FairSquare made a similar complaint to FIFA’s ethics committee. FairSquare said it had received acknowledgement that its complaint had been received but has not received any further information.
The Norwegian football federation wrote to the FIFA ethics committee last month requesting it consider FairSquare’s complaint. Fifty members of the European Parliament wrote to the same committee on June 29 urging it to address FairSquare’s complaint.
FIFA and the IOC have been contacted for comment.
Information from PA contributed to this report.
