At the helm of FIFA for ten years, Gianni Infantino has launched numerous divisive projects, culminating last week in his announcement of wanting to open the World Cups to private investors, a project that ultimately failed and in which the ambitious leader may well have overreached himself.

Long criticized but virtually unassailable, the 56-year-old Italian-Swiss, who also holds Lebanese nationality, is this time personally targeted by the European confederation (UEFA), which defines his project as "shabby" and the North American Concacaf, which sees it as "the symptom of a governance that has ceased to put football first".

And even though this bald-headed polyglot has withdrawn his offer, his detractors are not letting up.

On Monday, the Welsh and Swedish federations announced they would not support him in the upcoming FIFA presidential election, which will take place in Morocco in March, and for which he is the only candidate.

These are unprecedented and unimaginable stances, taken just two weeks ago, after "the best World Cup in history" in his own words, he who seemed to have strengthened his grip on world football, which he says he wants to "unleash its commercial potential".

Having arrived on tiptoe at the head of world football in 2016, when he was narrowly elected against four candidates, this former UEFA general secretary quickly consolidated his power, to the point of being re-elected without opposition in 2019 and 2023.

- Outrageous -

"To restore FIFA's image" and "to make football truly global": Mr. Infantino's ambition is summed up in these two phrases, by which he wanted to position himself as a guarantor of integrity as well as equal opportunities in the world's most popular sport.

Without the scandals that swept away his predecessor Sepp Blatter at the end of 2015, and then former UEFA president Michel Platini, who seemed certain to succeed him, few observers would have bet on this lawyer with no sporting background to lead the Zurich body.

The man in the shadows quickly transformed into a tribune, even daring to go to extremes: whether he brushed aside criticism of human rights before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by evoking his "discriminated" childhood as a little Italian boy in the Swiss Valais, or whether he explained that he had been "inspired," during the uncertain 2016 campaign, "by the way Rwanda recovered" from the 1994 genocide.

In December, he even replaced the Nobel Foundation by awarding the "FIFA Peace Prize" to Donald Trump out of thin air.

His links with the American president have also been criticized, particularly after FIFA overturned the suspension of American Folarin Balogun during the 2026 World Cup, following an intervention by Trump.

- "Populist" -

But curiously, Infantino did not seem weakened by this sequence, nor by the many other controversies that marred the World Cup.

It was ultimately Tuesday's announcement of his intention to open the door to private investors that shook the man who, until recently, seemed untouchable.

Opposition is growing: his chief advisor, Carlos Cordeiro, is resigning. French President Emmanuel Macron is calling him to try to change his mind, as confirmed to AFP by a source within the executive branch.

UEFA is even bringing out its ultimate weapon: the threat of boycotting the next World Cup. The president of the European association, Aleksander Ceferin, who has a frosty relationship with Infantino, had already described as "populist" the way in which the FIFA boss had touted his plan for a biennial World Cup in 2021, which was abandoned a few months later.

One of the only projects that Infantino had until now truly abandoned, after having succeeded in increasing the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, not from 2022 as he would have liked, but at the 2026 edition.

Infantino is already looking further ahead, and supports an expansion to 64 by 2030.

Last year, the man who is partly based in Doha with his Lebanese wife and their five children finally inaugurated his 32-team Club World Cup.

Expanded competitions allow FIFA to significantly increase its revenue. And in his desire to "make football truly global," Infantino redistributes a portion of this windfall to national federations, particularly the poorest ones, a way that also consolidates his position at the head of FIFA.

It remains to be seen whether this support will be enough to keep his job, as Gianni Infantino has never seemed so vulnerable at the head of world football.