UEFA didn’t hold back after FIFA confirmed it was scrapping its plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors. In an official statement released Saturday, European football’s governing body welcomed the U-turn but made clear the episode has done lasting damage to its relationship with Gianni Infantino, declaring outright that “the current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family“.
The statement didn’t stop at expressing disappointment. UEFA went further, framing the whole saga as a breach of trust that demands consequences. “We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account,” the organization said, signaling that it isn’t treating FIFA‘s retreat as the end of the matter.
UEFA also announced it plans to work with its member associations and other confederations in the coming weeks to examine how the proposal was allowed to advance as far as it did, describing the review as something that should be “thorough and fundamental” with “no option off the table“.
The plan, which had been unanimously rejected by UEFA’s national associations along with CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), collapsed after mounting opposition from multiple continental bodies and the resignation of Infantino’s own senior advisor, Carlos Cordeiro.
Despite the sharp tone, UEFA framed the outcome as a shared win for the sport rather than a victory over FIFA itself, calling it “a victory for the whole game” while cautioning that “the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun“.
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What was Infantino’s plan?
The proposal at the center of the fallout was the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new company FIFA wanted to create to manage the commercial and event rights tied to its biggest competitions, including the World Cup.
The plan would have brought in private investors to take a minority stake in that structure, with J.P. Morgan valuing the venture at roughly $20 billion and the deal aiming to raise around $4.2 billion.
In exchange, Infantino promised to immediately raise the annual bonus each member federation receives from $8 million to $20 million. The proposal gave FIFA’s 211 member associations a tight window to weigh in aunque it was quickly rejected by UEFA, with CONCACAF and the AFC soon following suit, stripping the project of a significant chunk of votes right from the start.
