The German Football Association (DFB) has taken a defiant stand against FIFA leadership, bluntly declaring that Gianni Infantino “has to go.” The high-stakes intervention lays bare a widening chasm between European football heavyweights and the global governing body, setting the stage for a bitter institutional power struggle. The DFB’s uncompromising stance marks one of the most aggressive institutional pushes back against Infantino’s presidency from a major footballing powerhouse.
“He has to go, no ifs or buts,” declared Joachim Watzke, one of the vice-presidents of the German Football Association (DFB) ‘Infantino created this prize himself, and he decided on it himself. You can’t just invent something on your own and then announce it, it’s madness. “It can’t be that when someone gets sent off, the head of state calls the FIFA president, and, remarkably, the whole thing is immediately overturned.
That’s madness. “It’s completely insane. Nobody knew about it, his vice- presidents in FIFA knew nothing, the Council knew nothing.” Tensions have steadily brewed over global calendar expansions, governance transparency, and commercial directions under the current FIFA administration. The bold declaration from Germany risks drawing further scrutiny from other prominent European federations, potentially galvanizing a broader coalition demanding structural reform at the top of world football.