UEFA has withdrawn its confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the collapse of a controversial proposal to sell stakes in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors.
Pressure is mounting on Infantino following the failure of the plan on Friday evening. It sought to raise £3.1bn by selling an interest in football’s most valuable tournament to private-sector investors led by Josh Kushner, a businessman with an extended family connection to US president Donald Trump.
UEFA, European football’s governing body, led the opposition to the proposal and said in a lengthy statement on Saturday that it no longer trusted Infantino’s leadership.
“UEFA welcomes FIFA’s decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions, including the World Cup, to private entities,” the statement said.
“The proposal was unanimously rejected by UEFA’s member national associations, as well as by many other national and continental associations of all sizes around the world, whose mission is to protect football.”
UEFA added: “UEFA thanks all the fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, national and continental associations who opposed this plan, as well as the many prime ministers, heads of state and commentators who demonstrated to the FIFA president that football is not for sale.”
The organisation said it could not accept the way the plan had been developed.
“We cannot continue in this way with secret schemes, fast timelines, arranged by unknown individuals and of questionable benefit to the game,” it said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”
UEFA said it would work with its members and other continental confederations in the coming days and weeks to examine how the situation had arisen and to prevent it from happening again.
“This review must be comprehensive and fundamental, and no option should be excluded,” it said. “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence, but also the confidence of many other members of the football family.”
The statement referred to promises made by Infantino when he sought the support and votes of FIFA’s member associations before being elected president in 2016.
UEFA quoted him as saying: “Of course we must be transparent. I have been transparent for the past 15 years of my life at UEFA, and you will have to play a role every day in the life of FIFA.”
It also recalled his words to assembled stakeholders: “FIFA’s money is your money. It is not the FIFA president’s money, it is your money, you national associations, and FIFA’s money must serve the development of football and nothing else.”
UEFA said Infantino had failed to honour both commitments.
“Infantino has failed to fulfil both promises,” it said. “The miserable and opaque deal that he arranged behind closed doors and tried to force through was not transparent at all.”
It also criticised the use of FIFA’s financial resources.
“With reserves of more than $5bn, he has also failed to use the associations’ money for the benefit of the game,” UEFA said.
The governing body said it would immediately begin working with partners and stakeholders across the world and throughout football to propose a new method of distributing resources through FIFA’s existing Forward programme.
“We must start using some of that money sitting idle in FIFA’s bank account to provide the major boost that grassroots football and the game as a whole need in each of FIFA’s 211 countries,” UEFA said. “But we do not need to sell our valuable assets to pay for it.”
UEFA described the collapse of the investment proposal as “a victory for the whole game”, but warned that it should not mark the end of the issue.
“The proposal is over, and the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun,” it concluded.
