UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has accused FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino of forgetting his European roots, warning that a proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup’s commercial operation would have been “worse than the Super League”.
FIFA abandoned Infantino’s plan earlier this month after strong opposition from UEFA and its members. The proposal would have created a new company, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to manage the commercial and ticketing rights for all FIFA competitions, with a 21% stake sold to a private investment company.
UEFA led the resistance, with its members voting to boycott World Cups unless the plan was withdrawn. UEFA has since said it has lost confidence in Infantino, while the football associations of all four home nations have withdrawn their support for the 56-year-old Swiss.
“I think this plan is even worse than the Super League plan,” Ceferin told the Rest is Politics podcast.
“Super important clubs wanted to do their own league, which is wrong, and would destroy football. But in this case, football would be literally sold.
“I’m absolutely sure that the plan is dead. It’s hard to imagine what kind of people would sell the sport that belongs to everyone. We will not allow that to happen.”
The European Super League was intended to be a breakaway competition involving 20 leading European clubs, designed to rival UEFA’s Champions League. It collapsed just days after being announced in April 2021 following widespread criticism.
Ceferin said UEFA had not been informed about the FFE proposal in advance and that he first learned of it through media reports while on holiday with his family.
“He didn’t contact me since this happened,” Ceferin said.
“They [FIFA] play on, you know, ‘[how] arrogant Europe is against us: They have enough money, but I help the small and the poor’.
“But I think someone should remind him that he is a European, and that he was supported by UEFA, which he forgot.”
Infantino worked for UEFA for 16 years, including nine as its general secretary. Since the dispute over FFE emerged, he has travelled widely in an effort to build public support.
He met members of the Caribbean Football Union in the Dominican Republic on Saturday before attending the E-Sports World Cup in Paris on Sunday. French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo were also present at that event.
Ceferin confirmed he would not stand for the FIFA presidency at the organisation’s Congress in March 2027, when Infantino is expected to seek a fourth term.
“I’m not interested for two reasons. One reason is that I love UEFA and I love working here, and I think that at a certain point it’s time also to enjoy life a bit,” said the 58-year-old Slovenian.
“And the second point is, my credibility is much, much, much higher if I’m not interested in the position.”
Ceferin also criticises Infantino over Trump intervention
Before the abandoned FFE proposal, Infantino had faced growing scrutiny over his relationship with United States President Donald Trump.
Trump said he had personally contacted Infantino after USA striker Folarin Balogun had a red-card suspension overturned, allowing him to play in his side’s defeat by Belgium in the last 16 of this summer’s World Cup.
Earlier this month, Trump described removing Infantino as FIFA president as a “terrible mistake”.
Ceferin strongly criticised the handling of Balogun’s suspension.
“That was more than shocking. We have rules, and if you don’t respect your own rules, then the game doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
“The president of a country says: ‘I called him, and I told him to look at it.’ And then the FIFA president says it was an independent decision.
“I mean, for us as football fans, or for us as a governing body, that’s shocking. That’s shocking, and, trust me, almost everybody was shocked. Just not everybody dared to speak.”
