Montagliani opts to stay at Concacaf, closing door on FIFA presidency challenge

Published: 2026-10-13 16:21:00

Victor Montagliani intends to seek re-election as Concacaf president next year, a decision that would effectively rule him out of challenging Gianni Infantino for the FIFA presidency, according to people familiar with his discussions.

The Canadian has conveyed his plans to staff and to most of Concacaf’s 41 member associations. At a staff town hall late last month, he said he wanted to continue serving the North American, Central American and Caribbean confederation despite calls for him to run for FIFA’s leadership, the Guardian reported.

Reform push moves to FIFA Council

Concacaf’s presidential election is due in the first quarter of next year, ahead of FIFA’s presidential vote on 18 March in Rabat. The timetable has sharpened attention on Montagliani’s intentions. His decision would leave Infantino, who is seeking another term, without a prominent regional rival, while no viable challenger has emerged in the reporting.

Montagliani is expected to join UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and Asian Football Confederation president Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa in pressing for an independent review of FIFA Forward Enterprise, the proposed tournament-investment initiative that has triggered a governance dispute. The leaders are also expected to seek wider reforms giving stakeholders a stronger voice and clarifying the FIFA Council’s role in major decisions.

The council meeting in Zurich will be its first since the FIFA Congress in Vancouver last March. The Guardian reported that the three confederation leaders had previously written to Infantino calling for a share of FIFA’s $6bn cash reserves to be allocated to member associations.

UEFA sets out reform priorities

At a meeting in Berlin, UEFA associations discussed proposals calling for “a president who leads, not manages”, stronger ethics, disciplinary, audit and compliance functions, and a clear process for major decisions. Azerbaijan was reported as the sole outlier among UEFA associations in declining to support the proposals.

Montagliani was elected Concacaf president in 2016 on a reform platform, following the corruption scandal that led to the arrest of his predecessor Jeffrey Webb. Webb later admitted taking “bribes and kickbacks”, the Guardian reported.