Gianni Infantino must leave the FIFA presidency “no ifs or buts”, according to Hans-Joachim Watzke, one of the vice presidents of the German Football Association (DFB), as he spoke at a festival dedicated to artificial intelligence in Berlin. The DFB was one of the few federations not to sign a letter of support for Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president in six months’ time. The first was the FIFA Peace Prize, launched by Infantino and awarded in December 2025 to US President Donald Trump, to whom Infantino is close, during the draw for the 2026 World Cup.
Infantino “created this prize himself, and he decided on it himself,” said Watzke. Watzke also condemned the controversial handling of the Folarin Balogun red card during this year’s World Cup, which was hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico. The American forward was sent off in the last 32 but his automatic one-match suspension was lifted after a phone call from Trump to Infantino.
That’s madness,” said Watzke. The third issue was the project, unveiled on July 28 and dropped four days later, to create a commercial company that would have been open to private investors and became a focal point of the rebellion against Infantino.
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