Gianni Infantino is facing an unprecedented revolt from European football leaders amid accusations elsewhere that the crisis engulfing FIFA extends far beyond the boardroom to the bloodstained streets of Morocco.
UEFA has declared that the trust required to serve as FIFA president has been “broken” and called for new leadership at the scandal-hit governing body.
The explosive intervention follows an aborted attempt to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup to outside investors through the controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise project.
But animal welfare campaigners say the row is only the latest example of an organisation operating without sufficient transparency or accountability under Infantino’s leadership.
The International Animal Welfare Protection Coalition (IAWPC) says hundreds of thousands of street and owned dogs are still being brutally killed every year in Morocco, one of the countries chosen by FIFA to host the 2030 World Cup.
The Coalition fears that as many as three million dogs could ultimately be massacred as the country prepares to stage the tournament alongside Spain and Portugal.
The Coalition says dogs continue to be violently shot, poisoned, beaten, brutally captured and taken to overcrowded pounds and killing facilities, despite FIFA being supplied with an extensive library of evidence documenting all this cruelty.
The killings and round-ups are also frequently witnessed by children, leaving some deeply traumatised, according to campaigners.
All this violence and trauma have taken on even greater significance because of a specific assurance made by Morocco and contained within FIFA’s own 2030 World Cup Bid Evaluation Report.
The Report stated that Morocco had outlined its commitment to animal rights and had “highlighted that since August 2024 the culling of animals is prohibited in the country”.
It added that government resources were being allocated to expand clinics and support programmes for stray dogs.
However, the IAWPC holds many hours of certified film evidence gathered since August 2024, which shows beyond all doubt, that dogs continue to be killed across Morocco, including in areas due to host World Cup matches.
The Coalition argues that this places Morocco in breach of the legally binding commitments underpinning its World Cup bid.
FIFA’s bidding rules state that all information provided, statements made and plans and measures proposed by bidding member associations are legally binding.
The IAWPC says the continued killings therefore cannot be dismissed as an animal welfare issue that sits outside FIFA’s responsibility. Quite the opposite. It is a very serious matter for FIFA, since it breaches a legally binding document and trust between FIFA and a Co-Host. Furthermore, it calls into question the accuracy of a central assurance used in FIFA’s assessment of Morocco’s suitability to host the tournament.
Despite repeatedly receiving evidence from the Coalition since the Bid Evaluation Report was published, which blows wide-open and exposes the lie behind the Moroccan Government’s sham ‘commitment’, FIFA has done nothing to correct this clear breach of contract, nor has it suspended Morocco as a co-host over this clear breach of trust between organiser and co-host, that affects the integrity of world football as a whole.
The growing controversy comes after European football leaders met in Monaco to discuss what UEFA described as the “continuing crisis at FIFA”.
In a statement issued following the meeting, UEFA representatives condemned Infantino’s failed investment proposal as “a profound failure of judgement” and “an abuse of presidential power”.
They unanimously instructed UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and his administration to pursue every available institutional, political and legal avenue to secure fundamental reform at FIFA.
UEFA also demanded a genuinely independent external review of FIFA Forward Enterprise, warning that FIFA could not investigate itself and expect the football community to accept its conclusions.
Its statement said: “The trust required to exercise the office of FIFA President has been broken and cannot be restored by withdrawing one proposal, issuing assurances or promising reform after the event. World football now needs new leadership capable of rebuilding that trust.”
European football chiefs warned that, should Infantino seek another term, they would work with other confederations to ensure member associations were offered a credible alternative.
UEFA has provisionally suspended plans for European teams to withdraw from forthcoming FIFA competitions after receiving written confirmation that the investment scheme had been “irrevocably and permanently withdrawn”.
However, it warned that abandoning the proposal did not erase the “deception, intimidation and abuse of power” surrounding it.
Les Ward MBE, chairman of the IAWPC, said the same lack of accountability identified by UEFA could be seen in FIFA’s failure to confront the killing of dogs in Morocco.
He said: “UEFA has now said publicly what campaigners have experienced for years: FIFA under Gianni Infantino has become an institution in which power is concentrated around one individual, serious concerns are met with silence and accountability is repeatedly avoided.
“While football’s leaders argue about governance and billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of defenceless dogs are being shot, poisoned, beaten and dragged from the streets of a World Cup host nation. Children are witnessing this brutality and carrying the psychological consequences.
“Morocco’s assurance in FIFA’s Bid Evaluation Report that the dog killing had been prohibited since August 2024, was a sham and a load of nonsense, despite the fact that commitments made by bidding countries are legally binding.
“This is a clear breach at the very heart of Morocco’s World Cup agreement, but FIFA has failed to investigate it openly, correct its report or hold the host nation to account.
“UEFA says FIFA cannot investigate itself and expect the world to accept its conclusions. The same principle must apply to Morocco. We need an independent investigation, transparent monitoring and an immediate end to the killing.
“Leadership is not measured by grand speeches or commercial deals. It is measured by what those in power do when confronted with suffering. On Morocco’s dogs, Gianni Infantino and FIFA have failed that test.”
The IAWPC, which brings together 83 animal welfare and protection organisations, is calling for Morocco’s position as a World Cup co-host to be suspended until the killings stop and an independently monitored, humane dog population management programme is introduced.
Campaigners want Morocco to replace lethal control with a nationwide programme of vaccination, sterilisation and return, based on an agreement brokered under King Mohammed VI in 2019.
