The Norwegian Football Federation is raising the tone against FIFA. She filed two appeals in respect of several controversial cases, including a request that Gianni Infantino's conduct be examined.
NFF referred the case to the FIFA Ethics Commission and the Governance, Audit and Compliance Commission. This approach concerns three distinct issues: the FIFA Peace Prize, the suspension of the American Folarin Balogun during the World 2026 and the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise project.
For the Norwegian Federation, these cases mainly raise issues of governance, transparency and oversight within the global forum. It now requests that the facts be examined by the relevant FIFA bodies.
Three folders in the viewfinder
The first concerns the FIFA Peace Prize. In particular, the NFF hopes that the conditions for the creation and award of this distinction will be examined.
The second one is on Folarin Balogun. The American striker had been suspended during the World Cup before it was lifted. The Norwegian Federation requests that the circumstances of this decision and the possible external influence on the disciplinary procedure be examined.
The third case concerns the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project. This included the entry of private investors into the capital of a structure to manage certain FIFA competitions, including the World Cup. The project was finally abandoned.
Infantino directly screws
The first referral asks the Ethics Commission to examine the conduct of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and any other persons identified during the investigation.
The second calls on the Governance, Audit and Compliance Commission to verify whether FIFA's control mechanisms, financial supervision and decision-making procedures have worked properly.
The NFF states, however, that it does not seek to impose a finding before any investigations. It wants facts to be established and responsibilities to be determined according to FIFA's own rules.
FIFA must now respond
On the FIFA side, a spokesman told Reuters that Infantino had already responded to the concerns expressed by the Norwegian federation in a letter to member associations in September. The presiding officer then said he was open to an independent review of decision-making processes.
The three issues raised by Norway are also to be addressed at the next FIFA Council meeting in Zurich on 15 October. An agenda item should include governance and finance, including a review of the FIFA Forward Enterprise project, disciplinary procedures and the organization's governance framework.
This Norwegian offensive places FIFA's governance once again in the spotlight. And this time, the criticisms are no longer at the stage of declarations: they are now officially submitted to the own oversight bodies of the world body.
