La Liga chief Tebas urges Infantino to quit, accusing Fifa of ‘destroying’ football

La Liga president Javier Tebas has called on Gianni Infantino to resign as Fifa president, accusing world football’s governing body of “destroying the football industry” through the relentless expansion of international competitions.

In a blistering attack on Infantino’s leadership, Tebas said Fifa’s push to enlarge tournaments such as the World Cup was undermining domestic leagues, which he argued are the backbone of the sport’s economy.

“In my opinion, yes, I think his time is up,” Tebas told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport when asked if Infantino should step down.

Infantino, who has been in charge of Fifa since 2016, has already confirmed he will seek a fourth term, with the vote for the 2027-2031 cycle due to be held in Morocco on 18 March next year.

‘A flawed system from the ground up’

Tebas, a long-standing critic of Fifa over fixture congestion and tournament expansion, said Infantino remains firmly entrenched in power because of a lack of viable challengers within the global football structure.

“He shouldn’t stay, but the current state of affairs means he won’t leave,” Tebas said. “There’s no opposition candidate; no one wants to run to lose. This is the system, and it’s a system that’s flawed from the ground up.

“I’ve heard a lot of people against Infantino, who don’t agree with what he’s doing. They say it, but then they don’t do anything.”

He argued that Fifa’s political model, in which each national federation has a vote, gives the president a strong base of support even as concern grows among leagues and clubs about the burden on players and the calendar.

Balogun ban row ‘extremely serious’

Tebas also took aim at Fifa’s handling of disciplinary matters, highlighting the decision to delay a suspension for United States forward Folarin Balogun following a red card at the World Cup.

The one-match ban was postponed after the intervention of US President Donald Trump, with Belgium subsequently beating the US 4-1 in the last 16.

“The suspension of the American player’s ban is an extremely serious matter. They were lucky that Belgium eliminated the US, because otherwise a case could have arisen that might have cost Infantino his job.

“Since Belgium won, they managed to bury the matter. But these things are just the tip of the iceberg.”

A video circulated at the tournament showed “FIFA President Gianni Infantino was seen ushering President Trump away from the stage so that Spain could celebrate their World Cup victory on Sunday.”

‘Everything cannot revolve around the World Cup’

Tebas reserved some of his strongest criticism for proposals to further expand the men’s World Cup, after CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez renewed calls for a 64-team tournament for the centenary edition in 2030.

Infantino has previously acknowledged that a 64-team format could be discussed in the future, having already overseen an expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams for 2026.

Tebas said such moves would inevitably squeeze domestic calendars and divert resources and attention away from leagues, clubs and the wider football economy.

“Increasing the number of national teams makes no sense,” he said.

“The football industry isn’t just the World Cup, which is the most important event. But not everything can revolve around the World Cup. It’s the national competitions that sustain this sport.

“They’re destroying the football industry, the one that generates tens of thousands of jobs for an event that lasts 40 days and only a minority of players attends.”

Growing rift at the top of world football

Tebas’s intervention comes amid an increasingly visible rift between Fifa and other major football bodies.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin did not attend Sunday’s World Cup final after a series of disagreements between European football’s governing body and Fifa over disciplinary procedures, refereeing logistics and match operations, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Tebas warned that continued expansion of Fifa competitions would deepen that tension and further endanger the domestic game that, he argued, underpins the sport financially and culturally.

“They’re destroying the football industry, the one that generates tens of thousands of jobs for an event that lasts 40 days and only a minority of players attends,” he repeated, underscoring his belief that the current direction of travel threatens football’s long-term stability.