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Another major crisis is brewing for global football administrative body FIFA and its beleaguered president Gianni Infantino. In the last two years, FIFA has been reeling from severe body blows which have badly damaged its credibility and reputation and brought unwanted attention to Infantino.
In late 2025 and continuing into 2026, Infantino faced heavy ethics and neutrality criticisms for unilaterally awarding the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico drew intense criticism over exorbitant ticket prices (reaching up to $11,000 for the final at MetLife Stadium), visible empty seats at multiple matches, and inconsistent treatment or heavy airport screenings of certain national teams (such as Iran, Senegal, and Uzbekistan) despite Infantino’s claims of total security and unity.
In June 2026, former UEFA President Michel Platini filed a criminal complaint in France against Infantino and former FIFA officials, accusing the FIFA president of orchestrating a campaign of false accusations, influence peddling, and a criminal conspiracy designed to eliminate him from the 2016 FIFA presidential race.
The biggest blow came this year after Infantino secretly negotiated a plan to sell a 20% to 21% stake in all future FIFA tournaments to private-sector and outside investors. This enraged UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC and national associations (including England, Wales, Scotland, and Norway), who accused FIFA of “breaking trust through deception” and trying to privatise the soul of the World Cup on the cheap.
Then, on Monday, 2nd November 2026, The New York Times and Le Monde revealed that FIFA quietly used a tax-equalisation mechanism to cover an estimated $4 million in American taxes for Infantino for 2024, 2025, and 2026 while he lived in Miami preparing for the World Cup.
But now it seems FIFA’s ‘Teflon Don’ might have finally dug himself into one hole he cannot extricate himself from and brought himself into conflict with the US authorities. Reports from verified sources indicate that Infantino influenced FIFA officials to fast-track the hire of an illegal alien to serve as a live-in maid for himself and his wife, Leena Infantino, at their Miami residence.
The housekeeper, identified as Yajarlin Del Socorro Fernandez, did not have a work permit or a valid US visa but was in the country under a Refugee Programme. She performed no services for FIFA yet received compensation and employee benefits through a FIFA-affiliated organisation. Leena Infantino personally arranged Fernandez’s hiring through a friend sometime before May 2024 despite knowing her immigration status.
US President Donald Trump had cancelled the Refugee Programme on January 20, 2025, yet Fernandez reportedly remained on a FIFA-affiliated payroll through October 2025 and was rehired in January 2026 under a contract valued at $40,400 annually, including medical and retirement benefits. Her employment was terminated in August 2026.
The fundamental issue is clear: FIFA resources were used to compensate an illegal alien whose services benefited the Infantino family and not FIFA. The potential violations fall into four categories:
- Federal tax violations: Improperly reported compensation, undisclosed personal benefits, false tax filings or intentional tax evasion
- Non-profit violations: Improper private benefit, excess benefit transactions and misuse of tax-exempt organisational assets
- Fraud and false statements: Misrepresentations in employment, payroll, accounting or immigration documentation
- State-law violations: Potential fiduciary-duty breaches and misuse of nonprofit assets
The potential violations put Infantino firmly in the sights of the US authorities. Abed Ayoub, a civil rights and immigration attorney who had the opportunity to review the information, said the matter raised serious ethical questions which Infantino must answer.
“What we see here is very concerning and out of the ordinary. A careful review of the records, timelines, and information provided paints a clear picture of what happened: Gianni Infantino used FIFA resources and his position of power to circumvent U.S. immigration laws and policies to enrich himself and his wife. He hired an undocumented individual, and then he took advantage of her, and made her perform personal tasks for him and his wife.
“These actions raise serious concerns about an abuse of power and misuse of resources. They reflect poorly not only on Infantino, but on FIFA as a whole and the countries it represents. Circumventing a nation’s laws and policies for personal gain is not leadership. These criminal violations demand an immediate, serious investigation by state and federal authorities to bring to justice Infantino and all responsible parties.”
Mary Rinaldi, a political strategist who operates in football, also weighed in with particularly damning words, unequivocal in her belief that Infantino had no place at the head of FIFA.
“Perhaps it is the sheer volume of criminal behaviour by world leaders overtaking our news cycle that we struggle to grasp the severity of the corruption Gianni Infantino has engaged in as President of FIFA.
“He has effectively indentured an illegal immigrant to him and his wife, using his influence to change their immigration status via U.S. officials, using his Presidency at FIFA to create a fake role for them at the non-profit resulting in deceptive tax filings, and using his connections and status to illegally employ them in the country when their immigration status changed.
“If Infantino can so easily break U.S. federal law, what other criminal acts is he capable of?
He is not fit to lead FIFA, and should not be allowed anywhere near the ‘people’s game’.”
However, with the unpredictable nature of US President Donald Trump, who is facing a major challenge on his hands during the mid-term elections, it remains to be seen if he will stand by the embattled Swiss or distance himself from a man who he publicly admitted calling to review a “horrible” red card decision given to U.S. forward Folarin Balogun during the World Cup. The entire scenario completely flies in the face of Trump’s hardline stance against illegal migrants.
A source in the Department of Homeland Security said, “If Infantino and his wife hired a maid without legal status, they have spat in Trump’s face and his policy agenda,”
“What the president will make of this is anyone’s guess.”
With multiple accusations, several attempts to oust him and a presidential election in March 2027, Infantino has proven incredibly resilient. But instructively, he has never faced the unforgiving and formidable US legal system. In May 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a massive indictment and creatively designated FIFA and its regional confederations (like CONCACAF and CONMEBOL) as a single racketeering enterprise.
The legal assault decimated the well-entrenched old guard of global football. Like a Hollwood movie scene, Swiss authorities acting on U.S. warrants arrested key FIFA vice presidents and executive committee members at a luxury hotel ahead of a FIFA Congress. Over 40 individuals and entities were eventually charged. And while then FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not directly named in the initial indictments, the immense pressure and secondary ethics investigations forced him and his top deputy, Jérôme Valcke, out of football entirely.
And 10 years later. it remains to be seen if the US legal system will once again bring down football’s biggest name and succeed where his UEFA rivals and their coalition have failed.
