Most of the football world spent the past week picking a side against Gianni Infantino. The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) picked his.
In a statement released this week, the PFF made its position on the now-scrapped FIFA Forward Enterprise unmistakably clear: it still supports the goal behind the plan, still backs Infantino’s leadership, and frames the entire saga as a reminder of why developing football nations like the Philippines need more financial and technical support, not less. It’s a strikingly different tone from the one coming out of Europe and North America over the same 72-hour stretch.
The Case the Philippine Football Federation Is Making
The federation didn’t shy away from acknowledging the criticism the controversial FIFA plan drew. It said it respects the position taken by UEFA, CONCACAF, the AFC, and fellow member associations that a proposal of this scale needed open, democratic discussion, and agreed that broad consultation across confederations protects transparency and leads to better collective decisions. That much, at least, puts the PFF in the same room as its harshest peers.
Where it splits sharply from them is what comes next. Even with the FFE withdrawn, the PFF says it still supports the underlying goal Infantino was championing—expanding commercial and financial assistance to all 211 member associations, particularly smaller markets like the Philippines. It pointed to the 48-team format at the 2026 World Cup as proof that inclusive investment works, citing Cabo Verde, Curaçao, and Uzbekistan’s performances on football’s biggest stage as evidence that developing nations respond to real investment by getting genuinely competitive. The federation closed by stating plainly that it stands behind Infantino’s leadership and trusts continued dialogue among the confederations to move the game forward together.
“We respect the views of UEFA, CONCACAF, the AFC, and fellow Member Associations that proposals of significant structural and financial impact—such as the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)—must be discussed openly and democratically. Broad consultation across all confederations and Member Associations protects transparency and helps everyone reach a shared, well-informed decision,” the PFF wrote in teh statement. “Although FIFA has withdrawn the FFE proposal, PFF continues to support the goal behind it, championed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino: expanding commercial and financial assistance to all 211 Member Associations, especially smaller markets like the Philippines.”
A Stark Contrast
The Philippine Football Federation’s stance lands very differently next to what UEFA and CONCACAF have actually said. UEFA didn’t just criticize the FFE proposal itself—once FIFA scrapped it, the confederation used the moment to go after Infantino’s leadership directly, condemning what it called secret schemes pushed through on fast-track timescales by faceless individuals, demanding accountability, and declaring that FIFA’s current leadership had lost the confidence of UEFA and much of the football family besides.
CONCACAF was just as blunt. Its own statement argued that a proposal of this magnitude doesn’t advance as far as it did by accident, calling it a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first, part of a pattern of missteps, and grounds for what it explicitly termed a comprehensive reckoning with the presidency itself.
The AFC sits somewhere closer to the PFF’s tone than the other two. It welcomed FIFA’s decision to scrap the plan and stressed that football’s future must be shaped through proper consultation and respect for established governance—pointed, but notably softer than UEFA and CONCACAF’s language, and without any direct call for Infantino to be held accountable.
Set against that spectrum, the Philippine Football Federation’s statement reads less like a rebuke and more like an endorsement wrapped in the language of consultation—acknowledging the process concerns everyone else raised, while still choosing to stand firmly behind the man at the center of the controversy.
