President

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Switzerland

Italy

Full name Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino
Place of birth Brig, Switzerland
Nationality Switzerland and Italy
Date of birth 23 March 1970
Marital status Married to Lina Al Achkar Infantino, 4 children (Alessia, Sabrina, Shanïa Serena and Dhalia Nora)
Education University of Fribourg
Mother tongue(s) Italian, French, German
Other languages English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic

Gianni INFANTINO

UEFA

FIFA Council

Bahrain

Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President and a FIFA Vice-President. He had previously been Vice-President of the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) from 1998 until becoming President in 2002. Shaikh Salman was also a member of the Organising Committee for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ and is currently the Chair of the FIFA Development Committee.

Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim AL KHALIFA

Paraguay

Alejandro Domínguez is President of the Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL) and a FIFA Vice-President. Before taking charge of football in South America, Domínguez served as President of the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) following his appointment to the role in August 2014. His career in football administration also included roles as Vice-President of the APF and Vice-President of Paraguayan outfit Club Olimpia.

Alejandro DOMÍNGUEZ

CONMEBOL

Canada

Vittorio Montagliani is the President of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and a FIFA Vice-President. Since 2012, Montagliani has also served as President of the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), having been first elected to his country’s governing body as Vice-President in 2006. A former Canadian futsal international, Montagliani was Chairman of the National Organizing Committee for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015.

Vittorio MONTAGLIANI

CONCACAF

Slovenia

Aleksander Čeferin was elected Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) President in September 2016 and became a FIFA Vice-President in the process. The Ljubljana-born lawyer had served as President of the Football Association of Slovenia (NZS) since 2011. Previously, Čeferin had worked and served as company director for his family’s law firm before becoming involved with Slovenian clubs KMN Svea Lesna Litija and NK Olimpija Ljubljana.

Aleksander ČEFERIN

Vanuatu

In 2018, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Congress elected Lambert Maltock to the role of acting OFC President for the remainder of the term, due to last until January 2019. Maltock has led the Vanuatu Football Federation as President for over a decade and been a long-standing member of the OFC Executive Committee, including serving as Vice-President. Maltock has also been a member of FIFA’s Development Committee.

Lambert MALTOCK

South Africa

Dr Patrice Motsepe is the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). He is a globally respected philanthropist and business leader having founded several successful businesses including African Rainbow Minerals (ARM). He became the owner of Pretoria-based Club Mamelodi Sundowns in 2003. Since then, the Club has won the South African Premier Soccer League title seven times and several top club competitions, and most notably the CAF Champions League in 2016 and the CAF Super Cup in 2017.

Patrice MOTSEPE

Hungary

A highly-respected member of the international banking community, Sándor Csányi has been directly involved in football since July 2010, when he was named Chairman of the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ). Currently chairman and CEO of OTP Bank Group, the business executive studied economics and later attained a PhD in the subject. Csanyi was previously Chairman of UEFA's Youth and Amateur Football Committee, Deputy Chairman of the National Team Competitions Committee and also served on several other committees. In 2015, he was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee, and in March 2017 he was elected as a member of the FIFA Council, before being named Vice President of UEFA in February 2018.

Sándor CSÁNYI

England

Debbie Hewitt MBE was appointed as chair of the English Football Association in June 2021, taking up the role in January 2022. 

Her background is in business, first in retail management and then as a group managing director in the automobile industry. She is currently non-executive chair of Visa Europe, price comparison giant comparethemarket.com and lifestyle clothing company White Stuff.

Debbie’s passion for football was established following her amateur referee father to matches. Since becoming the first female Chair of the English FA in its 160-year history, she is committed to good governance, transparency, and collaboration, in order to futureproof football for generations to come.

Debbie holds an MBA (distinction), an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration and was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to business and the public sector.

Debbie HEWITT

Vice Presidents

Egypt

Hany Abo Rida was the President of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) until 2019 and sits on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee. He first became a board member at the EFA in 1989 and served as the Local Organising Committee Vice-President and President at two FIFA tournaments in Egypt: the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 1997 and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009. He was a promising footballer before becoming an engineer and a football administrator.

Hany ABO RIDA

Japan

A former international footballer, Kohzo Tashima also coached the U-17 and U-20 Japan national sides after hanging up his boots. After coaching, Tashima went into football administration, serving as General Secretary, Vice-President, President and Honorary President of the Japanese FA (JFA), as well as being an Executive Committee Member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Tashima first fell in love with football during the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Kohzo TASHIMA

Turks and Caicos Islands

Sonia Fulford was the first female to be elected President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) in July 2014 after previously serving her country’s governing body as General Secretary. A former captain of the Turks and Caicos Islands women’s team, Fulford has served on the FIFA Women's Football Committee, the Organising Committees for both the FIFA World Cup™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as on the Councils of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Sonia FULFORD

Cuba

Luis Hernandez was the Football Association of Cuba (AFC) President, a position he has held from 1998 until 2021. A Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) Council member representing the Caribbean, Hernandez has been involved with football in Cuba his entire life, including playing for the national team for over a decade. In that time, he was a part of sides that competed in Olympic and FIFA World Cup™ qualifying and several regional competitions.

Luis HERNÁNDEZ

Ecuador

María Sol Muñoz Altamirano is the first woman to represent the Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL) on the FIFA Council. Previously, she served as Public Relations Director for Club Deportivo Universidad Católica in Quito in Ecuador’s top division for nearly three years. She also has an academic and professional background in law and jurisprudence.

Maria Sol MUÑOZ

A former skier, Evelina Christillin was President of the Italian National Tourism Agency between 2015 and 2018 after she played a major role – first as Executive President of the bid committee, then as Vice-President of the organising committee – at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Christillin has received several awards for her involvement in sport, including the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and the International Olympic Committee‘s Olympic Order award.

Evelina CHRISTILLIN

Colombia

Ramon Jesurun is a Vice-President at the Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL) and has been the President of the Colombian Football Federation (FCF) since the end of 2015. Formerly in charge of the club Atlético Junior and the Colombian professional leagues, he was also Vice-President at the FCF before becoming President.

Ramón JESURÚN

Montenegro

Widely regarded as the finest Montenegrin player of all time, Dejan Savicevic needs no introduction to anybody who followed European football in the 1990s. Often shining in a playmaker role, Savicevic featured for Yugoslavia at the 1990 and 1998 FIFA World Cup™. He won the European Cup in 1991 with Red Star Belgrade before moving to AC Milan, where he lifted three consecutive Italian Serie A titles and the UEFA Champions League in 1994. After hanging up his boots in 2001, Savicevic was coach of the Serbia & Montenegro national team from 2001 until 2003 before becoming president of the Football Association of Montenegro (FSCG) in 2004, a position he has held ever since.

Dejan SAVIĆEVIĆ

Philippines

Mariano Araneta is a former footballer who represented the Philippines national football team during the 1970s and ‘80s. He was the President of the Philippine Football Federation between 2010 and 2023, and on May 2017 was elected to the FIFA Council at the AFC Congress in Bahrain. Chair of the AFC Finance Committee. Araneta, who also played basketball to a high standard, has served on both FIFA’s Member Association Committee and its Beach Soccer Committee.

Mariano ARANETA

Cyprus

A businessman with experience in tourism, sports tourism, television licensing and media, Georgios Koumas was elected president of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) in March 2018, succeeding the late Costakis Koutsokoumnis. Prior to his election as president, Koumas served as the CFA’s deputy president and deputy general secretary, having first joined the member association back in 2005. His interest in football also included a spell as president of his hometown club Enosis Neon Paralimni FC.

Georgios KOUMAS

Aotearoa New Zealand

Johanna Wood was elected to the FIFA Council during the Oceania Football Confederation Extraordinary Congress in Auckland on Saturday 9 March to serve from 2019 to 2023. She is President of the New Zealand Football Federation having served as chair of the Central Football Federation since 2010. Wood is the first New Zealander elected to the FIFA Council since Charlie Dempsey, who served from 1996 to 2000. Wood was also made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List.

Johanna WOOD

Fiji

The first FIFA Council member to serve from Fiji, Rajesh Patel was elected for the term of office 2019-2023. Patel, president of the Fijian Football Association and senior vice-president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), was appointed to the FIFA Council during the OFC Extraordinary Congress in Auckland, New Zealand on 9 March 2019. Days before earning his seat, Patel helped introduce a seven-year plan intended to secure 2026 FIFA World Cup™ qualification for Fiji and introduce a fully professional domestic football league in the country.

Rajesh PATEL

Uruguay

Ignacio Alonso became president of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) in February 2019, having previously been part of the AUF’s executive committee. Prior to his role within the AUF, he worked for Montevideo-based club Rampla Juniors.

Ignacio ALONSO

Morocco

The president of his hometown club, RS Berkane, Fouzi Lekjaa studied agronomy before becoming president of the Moroccan Football Association (FRMF) in 2014, a position he continues to hold today. During his presidency, Moroccan clubs have won a number of continental trophies and the national team reached the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™. A vice-president of the African Football Confederation (CAF), Mr Lekjaa also chairs the CAF’s Finance Committee and is the vice-president of its Organising Committee for Inter-Club Competitions and Management of Club Licensing System.


Fouzi LEKJAA 

Mali

Born in Bamako, Mamoutou Toure, also known as Bavieux, was a tax inspector before obtaining a master’s degree in Auditing and Management Control and a degree in Sociology. In 1989, while he was working as a director of administrative and financial services, Mr Toure began his career as a football director, at AS Real Bamako. He then took up a post with the Bamako Football League, sitting on the Regional Refereeing Committee and the Finance Committee. A former director of women’s football at the Malian Football Association (FEMAFOOT), Mr Toure was elected the association’s president in August 2019.


Mamoutou TOURÉ

Benin

A former president of Beninese club AS Dragons FC de l’Oueme, Mathurin de Charcus was elected president of the Beninese Football Association (FBF) in 2018. Football in Benin has experienced significant growth since then, with the men’s Ligue 1 championship, women’s league, and training academies all being launched. It was also under Mr De Chacus’ presidency that the national team reached the quarter-finals of the 2019 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, its best ever performance in the competition.


Mathurin DE CHACUS

Nigeria

Amaju Pinnick was the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) between 2014 and 2022. He was also the First Vice President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between September 2018 and July 2019, and a member of the Organising Committee for FIFA competitions. He was also honoured with a Special Recognition Award at the maiden edition of the Sportsville Awards in Lagos.


Amaju PINNICK

Sierra Leone

Isha Johansen was been the long-serving president of the Sierra Leone Football Association from 2013 until 2021, and is one of the few women in the world to have headed a national football association. She is also the owner and CEO of Sierra Leone National Premier League club FC Johansen. Immersed in football from a young age, Johansen started her own club in 2004 seeking to provide guidance and opportunities to children whose lives had been disrupted by civil war. She has also been involved in campaigns to help and encourage women and girls to play football.


Isha JOHANSEN 

Romania

The son of a former footballer – his father Gheorghe Burleanu made more than 350 top-flight appearances – Răzvan Burleanu played football at youth level. He decided to move into academic studies at the age of 19, reading political sciences at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest, and graduating following several master’s studies, including sports management, and a doctoral thesis in organisational management, while continuing his involvement in football development at grassroots level.

Burleanu has worked for the municipal authorities in the city of Bacau, as well as for the Parliament of Romania and the Presidential Administration of Romania. He was elected as a FIFA Council member in April 2021. Elected for the first time as Romanian Football Federation (FRF) president in 2014, he was re-elected for a second term in 2018.

Since 2017, Burleanu has coordinated the UEFA-EU working group. In 2019, he was named as a member of the UEFA task force appointed to draw up the commercial strategies related to national team competitions, and also became chairman of the UEFA Media Committee. He has also acted as first vice-chairman of the UEFA Marketing Advisory Committee. Burleanu is the first Romanian to have been elected to the FIFA Council since the FRF joined the world body in 1923, and he is also its youngest member.

Răzvan BURLEANU

Mexico

Yon De Luisa became President of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) in July 2018 after being unanimously elected by the FMF Board, and held the post until 2023. He has also been CONCACAF vice president since 2019. 

For more than a decade prior to joining the FMF, De Luisa was involved in the management of football teams (he was president of Club America), stadiums and FIFA and CONCACAF events as General Coordinator. He was also Executive Director of the Local Organizing Committee for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Mexico 2011 and Director of Mexico’s successful joint bid to co-host the FIFA World Cup 2026™. 

In his previous role as vice president of sports at Grupo Televisa, the largest Spanish-language media company, De Luisa was responsible for all sports programming and broadcasts both through free-to-air and paid television, as well as being in charge of Club America football team and the Azteca Stadium. 

After graduating in Civil Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana, he completed his Master of Business Administration at the University of Texas, Austin, in the United States. Prior to focusing on the sports industry, De Luisa worked for more than a decade in finance and technology.


Yon DE LUISA

Malaysia

YBhg Datuk Haji Hamidin is a banker by profession who was elected as the President of FA of Malaysia (FAM) on 14 July 2018. Prior to that, he served as the FAM Secretary General for five years. Datuk Haji Hamidin is the seventh FAM president since 1951 but the first full-time professional to head the national body.

Due to his deep passion for football, Datuk Haji Hamidin was handpicked in 1995 to be the Executive Secretary of the FA of Selangor (FAS), one of the giants of Malaysian football. He has also served FAM in various capacities, including as the Chairman of standing committees and as team manager of the national team. In September 2019 he was elected as President of the Malaysian Football League (MFL).

Datuk Haji Hamidin is also a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Executive Committee, having been elected at the AFC Congress on 6 April 2019. 


DATUK HAJI HAMIDIN BIN HAJI MOHD AMIN

Qatar

HE Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Thani served as the President of the Qatar Football Association (QFA) between 2005 and 2023 before being appointed Honorary President. His career in football started as a youth player in the early ‘80s before moving on to a professional career as the team manager of a first division football club in the mid-90s. Since then, he gradually progressed through various management positions to be elected as a Board Member of the QFA in 1999. He was elected as the President of the QFA in 2005. 

Under his leadership, the game has seen massive expansion within Qatar, including the professionalization of the Qatar Stars League which culminated in Al Sadd winning the AFC Champions League title in 2011. At national team level, the U-19 team won the AFC U19 Championship in 2014 and the nucleus of that same team went on to win the AFC Asian Cup 2019, for the first time in the nation’s history. 

HE Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Thani was also a member of the successful FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 bidding committee Board. He was subsequently appointed as a Board Member of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in 2011, the organization set up to deliver the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. In January 2024, he was appointed Minister of Sports and Youth of Qatar. 

HE Al Thani also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Administration from Qatar University.

Sheikh Hamad Khalifa AL THANI

Saudi Arabia

Yasser Almisehal is the ninth president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF).

A member of both FIFA’s and the Asian Football Confederation Disciplinary Committees, Almisehal also served as chairman of the Saudi Pro League from June 2016 to October 2017. Almisehal studied Sport Management at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and has a Bachelor's degree in finance from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals.

Almisehal’s agenda has brought significant changes to Saudi football as a comprehensive player pathway to promote the country’s talent – both male and female - has been established. The Khobar-born executive is heavily invested in growing Saudi Arabia’s contribution to the game on the continental and international stages, as well as pushing reforms that support the continual development of the game.

Yasser ALMISEHAL

Laos

Kanya Keomany was the General Secretary of the Lao Football Federation until February 2024, when she became the federation's Vice President. She was also the first Lao female to be elected as a member of the AFC Executive Committee. 

She is a Business Administration graduate with a Bachelor’s degree from the National University of Laos and a Master’s degree from James Cook University in Australia. Professionally, she started her career in the textile industry, before founding an Events company, working as editor and journalist on a sports paper and magazine. Under her management, the company also produced TV programming to promote the 25th SEA Games 2009, the largest event to be ever hosted by the Lao PDR.

Before her appointment as the LFF General Secretary, she was an AFC Match Commissioner, was appointed Chairperson of LFF Women’s Football Committee, and as a member of AFC Women’s Football Committee, was mandated with expanding opportunities for girls and women, on and off the pitch. 

Kanya KEOMANY

Costa Rica

Rodolfo Villalobos, a civil engineer, began his sports career in 1999 as director of the Santos de Guapiles team, serving as President from 2004 to 2006. 

Subsequently, he served from 2006 to 2015 as Treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Costa Rican Football Federation, before assuming the role as its President until August 2023.

Villalobos was also Vice President of Concacaf from 2016 to 2023.

Rodolfo VILLALOBOS

Brazil

Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes graduated in Accountancy with a major in Auditing and has worked as a general manager with multinationals such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. He also has professional qualifications in Administrative Management from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) and in World Cup Legacy Football Management from FIFA and the Brazilian Football Association (CBF) Academy.

As an amateur footballer with the Vitoria da Conquista club Uniao Atletico Clube, Rodrigues was a four-time league champion, and as a sports administrator, he held the position of president of the Liga Conquistense de Desportos Terrestres between 1979 and 1983. In 1993, he joined the Bahia Football Association (FBF) as director of inter-municipal football and went on to become its director of football and director of player registrations and transfers. 

Four years later, in 1997, he was elected the FBF’s vice-president. In 2019 he was appointed vice-president of the CBF. In recognition of his work in developing football in the Bahia region and the north west of Brazil, he received the Comenda Dois de Julho, the highest honour awarded by the Legislative Assembly of Bahia to people making a significant contribution to society, citing his role as one of the founders of the Liga do Nordeste. 

In August 2021, after being nominated by the board of governors, he was appointed acting president of the CBF. At the CBF general electoral assembly held on 23 March 2022, he was elected its president until 2026.


Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes

Portugal

After being on the board at FC Porto for many years, Fernando Gomes was elected Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) President in 2011, a position he served until 2023. He became an adviser to UEFA’s Executive Committee and joined the organisation in 2015. He was appointed to be UEFA Vice President in 2017 and the FIFA Council that same year.

Fernando GOMES

Germany

Bernd Neuendorf was elected President of the German Football Association (DFB) in March 2022, following two-and-a-half years as President of the Mittelrhein sub-regional FA. 

After school he studied Modern History and Politics at the Universities of Bonn and Oxford. Subsequently he worked as a journalist, focusing primarily on political affairs. 

In 2003 he became spokesman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), first in Berlin and then in his home state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was here where he took the position of managing director of the SPD in 2007. Five years later he was appointed State Secretary in the government of North Rhine Westphalia responsible for Family, Youth, Children, Culture and Sport.

His next career move to the DFB combines his profession with his passion: football.


Bernd Neuendorf

Members

Sweden

Mattias Grafström was born on 24 September 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland, to a Swedish father and a Dutch mother. Raised in France, he started his career in football as a child at the local club in his village, Étoile Sportive de Péron.

Passionate about sports - he was a Swiss youth table tennis champion and completed several cross-country ski marathons – and football in particular, he shifted at a young age from playing on the field to focusing on football administration when he received an opportunity in 1997 to work in the Media department of UEFA. He quickly followed with an internship in the summer of 1998 at the Swedish Football Association.

Fluent in Swedish, Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish, he continued to work for UEFA at its headquarters and during its major events on a regular basis until 2004, simultaneously completing his university education with two master’s degrees: one in information and communication systems at the University of Geneva, and one in sports management and technology at the AISTS in Lausanne.

He returned to UEFA in 2008 where he held several roles within the organisation, starting at UEFA Media Technologies and ending in 2016 as the Senior Manager of the Executive Office.

Also in 2008, he worked for the Norwegian Football Association as a press officer for the Norwegian team at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup™ in Chile.

Following the election of Gianni Infantino as FIFA President in February 2016, he joined FIFA as Chief of Staff.

In 2019, he took on the role of Deputy Secretary General (Football), responsible for overseeing all football matters. After being named Secretary General ad interim in October 2023, he was formally appointed as Secretary General of FIFA by the FIFA Council on 15 May 2024.

Mattias GRAFSTRÖM

Secretary General

Bureau of FIFA Council

74th FIFA Congress - FIFA Council meeting


What We Do

FIFA Women's Club World Cup will be crucial for the women’s game, FIFA President says

Gianni Infantino said that the launching of a new 16-team FIFA Women's Club World Cup™ would be "crucial" for the women's game and give clubs a much-needed opportunity to perform on the global stage. 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino

Critical calendar to optimise women’s football planning and professionalisation

As women’s football continues to grow across the globe, the FIFA Council has unanimously approved a critical tool to support its acceleration – the Women’s International Match Calendar 2026-2029. 

Women's team players take part in a training session

FIFA Council appoints working group to recommend potential rule changes to the current FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches

The FIFA Council today approved the formation of a working group to gather further information and issue recommendations to the Council regarding potential amendments to the FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches (FRGIM). 

Adidas Fussballliebe match ball

FIFA Council approves Women’s International Match Calendar 2026-2029

The FIFA Council met in advance of the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, and adopted several key decisions, particularly in relation to the future of women’s football, for which the international match calendar was unanimously approved.

A general view during the FIFA Council Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand

Agenda for FIFA Council meeting now available

The agenda for the upcoming FIFA Council meeting, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15 May 2024 at 11:00 (local time), is now available.

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FIFA Council

What We Do

The FIFA Council is the main decision making body of the organisation in the intervals of FIFA Congress.

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