Blatter and Tebas Call for Infantino to Resign After World Cup Criticism

What happened: Sepp Blatter has joined La Liga president Javier Tebas in publicly calling for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign, according to The Guardian. Tebas accused Infantino of “destroying the football industry” by prioritising the World Cup over national competitions and said “his time is up.” Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor at FIFA, called for “fans, players and national associations to reclaim football and bring it back to its roots under new leadership.”

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Why it matters: This is not just another administrative dispute. The criticism comes from two figures with very different positions in football’s power structure: a former FIFA president and the sitting head of one of Europe’s most influential domestic leagues. Their shared target is the same: the direction of global football under Infantino, especially the balance between FIFA’s tournament ambitions and the domestic competitions that supply players, clubs, audiences and weekly revenue.

Tournament impact: The World Cup is the central pressure point. Spain had just celebrated a World Cup win when Tebas made his comments, which gives the criticism sharper timing. FIFA’s flagship tournament remains the sport’s biggest global stage, but the dispute is about what happens around it: calendar congestion, commercial priority, and whether national leagues are being forced to absorb the costs of a bigger FIFA footprint. The source does not specify new format changes or immediate policy moves, so the confirmed story is political pressure rather than a concrete structural change.

Governance angle: Blatter’s intervention is especially notable because he is not making a narrow complaint about one tournament or one league. His language frames the issue as a broader call to “reclaim football” through new leadership. Tebas’s language is more industry-focused, arguing that FIFA’s priorities are harming national competitions. Together, the comments put Infantino under criticism from both symbolic and institutional directions, even though the source does not report any formal resignation process, vote, or binding mechanism that would force a change.

What to watch: The practical question is whether this criticism stays rhetorical or becomes organised opposition among national associations, leagues, clubs or player groups. FIFA presidents are not removed by newspaper pressure alone, and the source does not indicate that a formal challenge has begun. The next signal would be whether other league bodies or football associations echo Tebas and Blatter, or whether FIFA can isolate the comments as predictable criticism from familiar opponents.

Confidence: Confirmed by the source are the public criticisms from Blatter and Tebas, the call for Infantino to step down, Tebas’s accusation that FIFA is prioritising the World Cup over national competitions, and Blatter’s call for football to be reclaimed under new leadership. Still needing follow-up are FIFA’s response, whether any associations support the demand, and whether this becomes a formal governance challenge rather than a public attack.