Uefa will convene an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon to decide how to respond to Fifa’s controversial plan to sell a major stake in its World Cup and other competitions to private investors, after world football’s governing body gave national associations a deadline to back the project in return for an immediate cash injection.
The virtual meeting comes after it emerged that Fifa, led by president Gianni Infantino, has written to all 211 member associations, giving them until 19 September to say whether they support the proposal. The letter, seen by the BBC, links their decision to the first $20m (£15m) tranche of a proposed initial $40m (£30m) one-off payment.
Uefa, European football’s governing body, escalated its criticism in a strongly worded statement on Wednesday.
“We have learned of Fifa’s deadline to associations to support their proposals or have the one-off payout offer withdrawn,” it said. “This says everything you need to know about this plan.”
It was Uefa’s second formal intervention in as many days, following an earlier statement accusing Fifa of having “crossed a line”.
The precise agenda for Thursday’s meeting has not been made public, but the stakes are high. Uefa counts within its 55 members three of the semi-finalists from the 2026 World Cup and knows that any collective move by its countries to threaten withdrawal from the tournament would pose a serious risk to the commercial model underpinning Fifa’s project.
That scenario is seen within European football circles as an extreme, last-resort response – especially as at least one Uefa member has publicly expressed support for the proposals.
“We can see the pragmatic benefits for Czech football,” said Czech Republic FA president David Trunda.
Anger over private equity move
Many federations, including the Football Association, are angered not only by the content of the proposal but by how it has been handled.
The plan would see 20% of Fifa’s competitions packaged into a new commercial entity and sold to private finance, led by the Thrive Eternal investment vehicle, which is owned by Joshua Kushner, the brother-in-law of US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
Several senior figures, among them FA chairwoman Debbie Hewitt, who is also a Fifa vice-president, were not given prior notice and instead learned details through media reports. Uefa’s concerns have been publicly echoed by the Asian, South American and North and Central American confederations.
Former FA and Manchester City chairman David Bernstein said England must “withdraw” from the World Cup if Infantino’s proposals are approved.
Fifa defends ‘golden opportunity’
In response to mounting criticism, Fifa on Wednesday evening circulated an eight-page briefing document setting out its justification for the plan.
Fifa argues that “too little of football’s growing commercial value has reached the parts of the game that need it most”. It says the new model would channel more money into infrastructure and development in less wealthy associations.
Critics, however, note that the sums discussed exceed the entire annual budgets of some federations. Serious questions have also been raised in several regions over how existing Fifa funds are monitored and audited.
Infantino insists the project would produce tangible benefits, including “better pitches, stronger national teams, more pathways for young players, and greater support for women’s football”.
In a video released by Fifa, he described the scheme as voluntary.
“It’s part of a democratic process – a consultation process – and, above all, it is an opportunity but not an obligation,” he said.
“It is a golden opportunity to turbocharge the development of the game globally.”
Fifa points to the recent qualifications of Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan for the World Cup for the first time as evidence of how its development work is bearing fruit, although those breakthroughs were also facilitated by the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams.
The organisation also cites Formula 1, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga as precedents of elite sports bodies operating through “dedicated commercial operations”. It insists private investors would “absolutely not” have any influence over the World Cup itself.
Leagues and players’ union condemn plan
Reaction across the game on Wednesday was dominated by opposition.
The European Leagues organisation branded the proposal “a reckless and divisive development for world football”.
“The World Cup should not be for sale. It is not the Fifa president’s private equity asset,” its statement said.
Global players’ union Fifpro urged Fifa to “reconsider its proposal without further delay”, saying it had “noted with deep concern the proposal to transform the World Cup and other Fifa competitions into investable assets for private capital”.
Fifpro warned that such a change “would fundamentally and irreversibly reshape the incentives underpinning the competitions” and said it was “particularly troubling that a project of this magnitude has been developed largely behind closed doors”.
La Liga president Javier Tebas accused Infantino of using the plan to shore up political support ahead of the next Fifa congress in March.
“It doesn’t seem like a reform. It seems like an electoral campaign financed with the future of football,” Tebas said.
“Development cannot be used to buy votes or silences. The competitions and commercial rights of Fifa are not the personal patrimony of Infantino.
“Whoever mixes politics, discipline, money and power without transparency cannot lead anything.
“Infantino is not the solution to Fifa’s governance. He is the problem.”
Hans-Joachim Watzke, vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB) and president of Borussia Dortmund, told Kicker magazine that Fifa’s plans are an “absolute attack on football”.
He added: “A line has been crossed here. If European football stands united against these plans, that carries a great deal of weight.”
With Uefa’s emergency talks now set, the confrontation between the game’s most powerful confederation and Fifa over the commercial future of the World Cup appears certain to intensify in the coming days.
