Oliver Towfigh Nia
18 September 2026•Update: 18 September 2026
The vice president of the German Football Federation (DFB) has for the first time publicly called for the removal of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, press reports said Friday
“The three things that happened—that was too much,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke at the Big Bang AI Festival in Berlin, stating bluntly: “He should go – no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Watzke listed what he called Infantino’s mistakes one by one. He said the FIFA chief “created and decided on his own” to award US President Donald Trump the FIFA Peace Prize in the runup to this summer’s World Cup, according to Kicker football magazine
“You can’t just make something up on your own and then announce it—that’s madness,” he said.
Watzke, who is also a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, also brought up a controversial issue from the World Cup play, also involving Trump: “Then there’s this (US national team striker Folarin) Balogun issue. It can’t be right that when someone gets sent off the field, the president of the country calls the FIFA president, and, astonishingly, the decision is immediately reversed. That’s just crazy.”
For the third point, Watzke cited Infantino’s scuttled investor deal: “Completely insane. No one knows about it—his vice presidents at FIFA knew nothing, the council knew nothing.”
The World Cup, according to Watzke, “runs like clockwork. Why would you want investors there? You don’t need them at all. FIFA is sitting on a massive mountain of money that actually belongs to us—the national associations—so why do we need investors? Why should I give them 20 or 30 percent when the whole thing is running smoothly?”
These three incidents, Watzke said of Infantino, are “too much; that’s why, ideally, he needs to go now.”
Infantino, for his part, said he has no plans to step down. He recently announced his candidacy for reelection in March 2027.
