Former FIFA Council member Isha Johansen has become the first prominent African football figure to publicly break with the wave of support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, urging him to step down 'for the good of football'.
Johansen, the former Sierra Leone Football Association president, said Infantino's actions with the FIFA Forward Enterprise crossed an ethical line, and led to a breakdown of trust in his leadership that may now be beyond repair.
"Clearly it seems that he has crossed the line and there has been a breach of trust here," Johansen told ESPN.
Her intervention represents a significant departure from the public position taken by African football's leadership since the crisis erupted.
CAF's executive committee has unanimously backed Infantino and his re-election in 2027, while CAF president Patrice Motsepe has publicly defended him on the basis of loyalty. Until Johansen spoke out, there had been little public dissent from senior current or former senior African football officials as Infantino continued to receive declarations of support from around the continent.
Johansen has been joined in that dissent by former Liberia Football Association president and former CAF executive committee member Musa Bility, who has called on CAF to reconsider its endorsement and warned that, "Africa must not become the firewall protecting one man from accountability."
Johansen led the Sierra Leone Football Association from 2013 until 2021 and was elected to the FIFA Council in March 2021. According to her, she was poised to win re-election that year, but withdrew from the SLFA presidential election three months later, publicly citing the demands of her new international responsibilities among the reasons for her decision.
Johansen now says Infantino had personally advised her to walk away after visiting Sierra Leone and seeing the turmoil surrounding her presidency.
"I had a situation where I was an embattled president fighting against corruption and trying to instil a code of ethics and governance," she said.
"Gianni visited Sierra Leone around the same period with Patrice Motsepe, and seeing how dire the situation was, he himself turned around to me and he said, leave these people. I understood his point and decided to step down for the good of football in my country.
"And I did that. I stepped down in 2021 for the good of all. It is a major story that I detailed in my recently published book "The Uncommon Enemy", which covers my relentless fight for ethics, integrity and good governance in football and the persecution I personally suffered in that process.
"I stepped away for the good of football, against the advice of my supporters and stakeholders. So on reflection, that is the question I would ask him now. Should he not step down for the good of football?
"He stood by me because I was enforcing the FIFA code of ethics and good governance, which is what FIFA supposedly stands for.
"It's ironic and disturbing and really sad that today, he should be facing that which he stood up for, and he's being brought down because of a breach of the very same integrity ethics."
"I have nothing personal against Gianni. It's not about the person. It's about the act, the deed, the ethics behind the proposal. How it was presented, how it was unethical."
Infantino is now facing the most serious challenge to his leadership since becoming FIFA president in 2016 following the fallout over his FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, which envisaged creating a commercial subsidiary valued at about $20 billion and selling a minority stake to outside investors.
The proposal would have consolidated major FIFA revenue-generating operations, including broadcasting, sponsorship and ticketing, into the new entity, with up to 20% available to investors. FIFA told its 211 member associations they could receive as much as $40 million each during the 2027-30 cycle if the plan went ahead.
"When I heard about the proposal, I said, this is a no deal. It's a no-go," Johansen said.
The plan drew fierce opposition, particularly from UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation, over both its substance and the process by which it was presented. Infantino subsequently withdrew the proposal and apologised, but the dispute has developed into a wider confrontation over FIFA governance and his leadership, with UEFA leading the charge and demanding Infantino step down.
Infantino has now gone from being a shoo-in to win re-election, to now potentially being forced out, or facing a challenge at the elections
"As it stands now, it would appear that he is not going to go unopposed, that's for sure," Johansen said.
The one place that contest will come from, is not Africa. While opposition has hardened elsewhere, the response from Africa has been markedly different.
CAF's executive committee unanimously reaffirmed its support for Infantino, and Motsepe publicly backed him, describing the FIFA president as a loyal friend to Africa and saying that where he comes from, people do not "stab" those who have been loyal to them "in the back."
Johansen said that declaration came too soon and risked reinforcing an uncomfortable perception about African football's relationship with FIFA.
"I was disappointed with Patrice to say, oh, we're loyal," she said. "And that in our country, our continent, you cannot stab somebody in the back. That was such a premature statement to make in this context. It does not reflect well on Africa.
"The social economics, the dynamics in Africa, it is so different to that of Europe. That money is the transfer fee of one player in the Premier League. Say around 40 million just for one player.
"Sierra Leone has never seen that kind of budget, that kind of money. So that particular FA president, how he's going to come back to his country and face the head of state to say, I turned down $40 million?
"He will have to explain how he managed, how it came about, how he worked that mathematics out to lose it. He will now lose face. His support base will also come after him and he will not get re-elected.
"And that's the other reason why I'm voicing out, because without they won't say it."
But she said financial necessity cannot remove the obligation of CAF and its member associations to scrutinise the ethics of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal itself.
"I hate the perception, and I said this over and over again, even today, that there is that silent perception that, of course, Africa's going to say we're going to stand by him," Johansen said.
"We want the money because that's all we want, the money. Nobody wants to talk about the ethical aspect of how we're getting that money, how this money was landed to us or given to us or offered to us.
"Nobody wants to ask how ethical that is."