Gianni Infantino once stood in the Kremlin and told Vladimir Putin: "This is not the end; it is only the beginning of our fruitful cooperation." That was 2019. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia's national teams were banned from international competition. And yet, when FIFA holds its presidential election next spring, the Russian Football Union will still get a vote.
That's not an oversight. FIFA never revoked Russia's membership. The RFU can attend FIFA Congress, participate in debates, and cast a ballot — same as any fully active member association. UEFA operates the same way. Banned from competition, present at the table.
What Russia's vote is actually worth
On paper, one vote shouldn't move elections. In practice, FIFA politics don't work that way. Russia has geopolitical relationships across Africa, Asia, and parts of South America — regions where bloc voting is commonplace and where Infantino has spent years cultivating support. If a credible challenger to Infantino emerges — and that pressure is building after his failed attempt to sell a stake in FIFA competitions triggered a near-revolt from all 55 UEFA member associations — every vote in the calculation matters.
Infantino is currently standing unopposed. But UEFA's public fury, joined unanimously by its members including the RFU, has created a rare moment of instability around a man who has run FIFA like an uncontested incumbent. Whether Russia uses its vote to back him, abstain, or play kingmaker for a challenger is a genuinely open question. The RFU declined to publicly confirm whether it has endorsed Infantino for re-election.
That silence is its own kind of leverage.
The slow walk toward reintegration
Earlier this year, Infantino told Sky News he wanted to explore lifting the ban on Russia, arguing it had "just created more frustration and hatred." He suggested FIFA's statutes "should actually never ban any country from playing football because of the acts of their political leaders." The comments arrived at a moment when FIFA was simultaneously resisting calls to ban Israel over the war in Gaza — context that made the framing land particularly badly in European football circles.
FIFA and UEFA already partially walked back the ban in 2023, allowing Russian Under-17 teams to compete internationally — stripped of their flag, anthem, kit, and name, competing as the "Football Union of Russia." It was a compromise that satisfied almost nobody but signalled the direction of travel.
- Russia hosted the 2018 men's World Cup, four years after annexing Crimea and making incursions into eastern Ukraine
- The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was held in Russia in 2021
- Shakhtar Donetsk was forced to abandon its home stadium in 2014 and has been playing in safer areas of Ukraine ever since
- Putin awarded Infantino the Order of Friendship in February 2019 for his "enormous contribution" to Russia's World Cup
The institutional memory here is short and the financial memory is long. Russia was too big a market, too big a host, and too connected to FIFA's leadership to be cleanly excised. A full ban on competing is, as it turns out, the ceiling of FIFA's ambition when political relationships are at stake.
Putin signed the decree giving Infantino his medal. Infantino stood in Moscow and called it "only the beginning." Russia still has its vote. FIFA declined to comment.
