Launched on 4 June 2026 in Record, Portugal’s leading sports newspaper, SIGA’s weekly opinion column Linha da Frente (Front Line, in Portuguese) provides a dedicated platform to address issues at the heart of SIGA’s global agenda, including Sport Integrity, good governance, transparency, accountability, financial integrity, sports betting integrity, sustainability, youth development and protection, and the future of sport.
Click to read this week’s article in Portuguese.
After the Greatest World Cup Ever, FIFA Faces Its Greatest Test
Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, Founder and Global CEO, SIGA
I am not in the habit of commenting on every institutional development in football. I do so only when circumstances are truly exceptional, when the facts extend far beyond the episode that gave rise to them and raise fundamental questions about the exercise of power, the independence of institutions, good governance and the integrity of sport.
This is one such case.
These reflections are offered strictly in a personal capacity, with complete independence and without alignment with any faction, chorus or convenience. They do not bind SIGA, nor any other institution, organisation or individual other than myself. My purpose is neither to attack nor to defend any of the protagonists, still less to fuel a passing controversy. What drives me is a simple conviction: recognising merit does not require silence in the face of matters that raise legitimate questions, just as the responsible exercise of criticism should never be mistaken for hostility.
Serious scrutiny belongs to no particular camp. It is not an instrument of confrontation, but a requirement of good governance, a condition of legitimacy and an indispensable prerequisite for trust. When institutions with global responsibilities, the capacity to shape the future of sport and decision-making powers capable of affecting millions of people are involved, silence is not always prudence. At times, it can become complacency.
THE GREATEST WORLD CUP EVER
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will go down in history as the greatest ever. For the first time, 48 national teams competed in the final tournament; three countries jointly hosted the competition; millions of fans crossed borders, filled stadiums and followed a tournament that once again confirmed football’s extraordinary ability to unite peoples, cultures and generations.
Spain were crowned world champions, but football itself was also a great winner. The sporting, economic, media and social dimensions of the tournament surpassed anything previously achieved. The World Cup consolidated its status as the world’s greatest sporting platform and as one of the most influential events in contemporary society.
That success deserves recognition. Gianni Infantino assumed the FIFA presidency during one of the most difficult periods in the organisation’s history, when its credibility had been severely damaged by investigations, corruption scandals and an unprecedented institutional crisis. Since then, FIFA has restored its financial strength, reinforced its international influence, substantially increased the resources distributed to national associations, expanded its competitions and broadened football’s global reach. The 2026 FIFA World Cup represents, to a large extent, the culmination of that process. It would be intellectually dishonest not to acknowledge it.
But the true test of an institution does not begin when it achieves success. It begins when it must demonstrate that it is capable of exercising, responsibly, the power that success has brought it. There is a fundamental distinction between power and leadership: power is measured by the ability to decide, influence and mobilise resources; leadership is measured by how that power is exercised, by the limits it voluntarily accepts and by its willingness to be held accountable.
With the celebrations surrounding the greatest World Cup ever now over, FIFA’s greatest test begins: demonstrating that the extraordinary economic, political and institutional power it now commands is matched by equally high standards of good governance, independence, integrity, transparency and accountability.
MERIT, EXPERIENCE AND HIGH STANDARDS
I know Gianni Infantino well. Very well. For more than twenty-five years. During a decisive decade and a half in the evolution of European football, I served as CEO of the European Leagues while Gianni held senior responsibilities at UEFA. We worked directly on some of the most important strategic issues facing European professional football, within a framework of permanent institutional dialogue between UEFA, the leagues, the clubs and the players.
Long before he became FIFA President, I therefore came to know the lawyer, the negotiator, the administrator and the football politician. And I say this with complete objectivity: he is an outstanding professional, an exceptional administrator and someone with a profound understanding of the political, economic and institutional realities of world football.
There are no unsettled scores between us. There never have been. I harbour no resentment, no personal grievance and no desire to settle accounts. What I write here stems exclusively from my reading of the facts, from more than three decades of experience devoted to football and from the conviction that the greater the power exercised by an institution, the higher the standards to which it should willingly hold itself.
Recognising Gianni Infantino’s achievements does not require us to conclude that the work is finished. On the contrary: it is precisely because FIFA is today stronger, more influential and more powerful than ever that it is legitimate to expect even higher standards of governance, integrity, transparency and accountability.
Great institutions are distinguished not only by the scale of their achievements. Above all, they are distinguished by their ability to accept scrutiny, address their vulnerabilities and demonstrate that no one stands above the very principles they demand of others. In my view, this is where the next stage of FIFA’s evolution begins.
POLITICAL PROXIMITY, INSTITUTIONAL DISTANCE
The President of FIFA must, by necessity, maintain an ongoing dialogue with governments, heads of state and political leaders. No global sports organisation can stage competitions of this magnitude, guarantee security arrangements, secure visa regimes, coordinate infrastructure or mobilise public resources without a close institutional relationship with public authorities.
The problem has never been that proximity. It arises when such proximity, however entirely legitimate, may cast doubt on the independence of the institution’s own decisions. The greater the public visibility of that relationship, the greater the duty of transparency; the closer the relationship with political power, the greater the need for institutional distance.
It was in this context that the disciplinary case involving United States international Folarin Balogun arose.
Let us consider the facts.
The player was sent off during a United States national team match and automatically suspended for the following game. Shortly afterwards, the President of the United States publicly announced that he had contacted the President of FIFA regarding the dismissal. Subsequently, the competent disciplinary body suspended the enforcement of the sanction, allowing the player to participate in the next match.
FIFA explained that the decision was grounded in its disciplinary regulations. Let us therefore accept that the applicable rules provided a legal basis for the outcome reached. But that does not settle the matter. It is precisely where the real issue begins.
Based on the information publicly available, it is impossible to determine whether that contact had any direct or indirect influence on the decision subsequently taken. But neither is it possible to ignore the circumstances in which it occurred, nor the perception it inevitably created.
A contact of this nature, concerning a pending disciplinary matter, required particular institutional safeguards. Once it became public, it also required FIFA to provide a clear, rigorous and verifiable explanation of how the independence of the process had been fully protected.
When political intervention is publicly announced and, shortly afterwards, a decision is adopted that coincides with the outcome sought, it is not enough simply to state that the regulations permitted such a solution. It is essential to explain why that discretionary power was exercised, who initiated the procedure, which criteria were applied and to what extent the decision is consistent with FIFA’s own disciplinary practice.
The issue is not confined to the legality of the decision, but to the confidence it is capable of inspiring. The independence of sports justice cannot merely exist; it must be visible, demonstrable and capable of withstanding public scrutiny without ambiguity.
AUTONOMY, RESPONSIBILITY AND THE RULE OF LAW
FIFA rightly requires its member associations to remain independent from undue governmental interference. Whenever it considers that a government has exceeded acceptable limits, it does not hesitate to suspend a member association or prevent a country from participating in its competitions.
That principle is essential. It protects football from political instrumentalisation and constitutes one of the foundations of sport’s autonomy. But principles possess true authority only when they are applied universally.
FIFA cannot be strong with the weak and weak with the strong.
An organisation that demands independence from its member associations must demonstrate, with equal rigour, that its own decisions remain protected from any external influence, regardless of the country, the government or the individual concerned.
The autonomy of sport is a civilisational achievement. It allows sporting organisations to regulate their competitions, preserve the specific nature of sport and resolve matters that properly belong to them with independence. But autonomy has never meant an absence of responsibility, still less immunity from scrutiny.
Autonomy does not place sporting organisations above the law, nor does it exempt them from complying with the fundamental principles of the rule of law. On the contrary: precisely because they are entrusted with regulatory, disciplinary, economic and, in many instances, quasi-judicial powers, they bear an even greater duty of transparency, reasoned decision-making, impartiality and accountability.
The autonomy of sport is not a privilege. It is a responsibility, and that responsibility grows in direct proportion to the power exercised. It is not enough to make the right decisions; it is necessary to demonstrate that they were taken independently, impartially and transparently. That demonstration is what sustains trust—and trust, more than any regulation or sanction, is the true foundation of institutional authority.
SCRUTINY AS A SOURCE OF LEGITIMACY
There remains a tendency, all too common, to regard independent scrutiny as a threat to the autonomy of sporting organisations. That is a mistake. In modern democracies, no institution strengthens its legitimacy by seeking to reduce the scrutiny to which it is subject.
Central banks reinforce their credibility through the independence and transparency of their decisions. Courts derive legitimacy from the public reasoning set out in their judgments. Listed companies earn the confidence of the markets through independent audits, internal control mechanisms and rigorous accountability obligations. There is no reason why sport should follow a different path.
The greater an organisation’s public significance, the greater should be its willingness to demonstrate that its decision-making processes meet the highest standards of governance, integrity and transparency. FIFA has achieved a unique leadership position within international sport. That position grants it rights, but above all it imposes responsibilities.
For that very reason, I believe the time has come to take a further step: not one imposed by others, nor driven by media pressure, but one that is voluntary, deliberate and strategically intelligent. True leadership does not wait for trust to be granted; it builds trust by voluntarily embracing independent mechanisms of assessment, verification and accountability.
Great institutions are distinguished not by the absence of controversy, but by the way they respond to it. Their defining moments rarely coincide with periods of tranquillity. They are almost always the result of their willingness to confront legitimate questions with transparency, independence and responsibility.
FIFA finds itself at precisely such a moment. Not because the legitimacy of its leadership is in question, nor because the extraordinary achievements of recent years should be overlooked. On the contrary: it is precisely because it has consolidated its position as the world’s most powerful sporting organisation that it can—and should—be expected to meet standards of governance commensurate with the scale of its influence.
Trust is not preserved by asking institutions to be believed. It is built by demonstrating, continuously, that decisions can withstand the most demanding scrutiny. That is the difference between formal authority and moral authority: the former derives from statutes; the latter is earned every single day.
FROM EXPECTATION TO ACTION
This reflection is not merely about FIFA, nor about a disciplinary case. It is about the credibility of the institutions that govern world sport.
Football has become an economic, social, cultural and political phenomenon of global proportions. The decisions of its governing organisations have consequences far beyond the field of play: they affect athletes, clubs, sponsors, investors, governments and hundreds of millions of supporters. The greater that impact, the greater the responsibility.
Great institutions are judged not only by the successes they achieve, but by the way they exercise power, by the transparency with which they explain their decisions and by their willingness voluntarily to subject themselves to the very standards they demand of others. That is what distinguishes a powerful organisation from a truly leading institution.
FIFA should, on its own initiative, submit its systems of governance, integrity and transparency to a genuinely independent assessment conducted against public, objective and verifiable criteria.
Today, instruments capable of providing such scrutiny already exist. Among them are the Universal Standards on Sport Integrity and SIRVS—the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System—developed specifically to assess, independently and impartially, the quality of governance systems within sporting organisations.
Adopting those standards and voluntarily submitting to an independent assessment process would not constitute a concession, nor a defensive response to critics. It would be an affirmation of leadership.
If FIFA is confident in the robustness of its systems, a genuinely independent assessment can only strengthen its credibility. If areas requiring improvement are identified, so much the better: they will be recognised, addressed and transformed into new sources of trust.
Institutional reform is not achieved against institutions. It is achieved through intelligence, courage, perseverance and institutional responsibility. The strongest organisations are not those that reject scrutiny, but those that embrace it as an instrument of continuous improvement, enhanced legitimacy and strengthened trust.
As Global CEO of SIGA, it would be inconsistent for me to remain silent on an issue that directly engages the very principles the organisation exists to promote: good governance, integrity, transparency, independence, responsibility and accountability. That does not make this reflection an institutional position of SIGA. It is simply the exercise of a personal responsibility arising from more than three decades devoted to football and from the conviction that institutions become stronger when they are willing to measure themselves against the highest standards of excellence.
THE GREATEST LEGACY
The greatest World Cup ever already belongs to history. FIFA’s greatest test belongs to the future.
It will not be measured by the number of spectators, commercial revenues or the scale of its competitions. It will be measured by its ability to demonstrate that the growth of its power has been matched by stronger governance; that the influence it has acquired has been accompanied by equal independence; and that the trust it seeks rests upon a culture of transparency, responsibility and accountability.
It will also be measured by its willingness to explain, clearly and rigorously, those decisions that give rise to legitimate questions, and by its determination to ensure that the principles it requires of its member associations are observed with equal rigour at the very centre of its own authority.
I have known Gianni Infantino long enough to know that he possesses intelligence, strategic vision, determination and an extraordinary capacity for work. Precisely because I recognise the profound transformation he has led at FIFA, I believe this is the moment to take the next step.
Organising the greatest World Cup ever was an extraordinary achievement. Ensuring that FIFA also becomes a global benchmark for governance, integrity and transparency would be a historic legacy.
Because power never justifies less scrutiny. It always justifies more. And after the greatest World Cup ever, that is, truly, FIFA’s greatest test.
– THE END –
Previous Front Line articles
- Front Line Op-Ed: Sport Integrity – The Value of Trust (4 June 2026, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros)
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Front Line Op-Ed: Trust: Football’s Silent Capital (11 June 2026, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros)
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Front Line Op-Ed: The Trust Test (18 June 2026, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros)
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Front Line Op-Ed: Digital Success, IP Protection and Sports Integrity (9 July 2026, Martin Bland)
ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.
Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.
SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.
SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.
For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.
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