Mark Palios reports that FIFA withdrew its plan to sell a stake in its competitions, including the World Cup, into private hands after UEFA and many other football bodies rejected it. UEFA said the proposal had failed because organizations charged with protecting the game would not accept it.
UEFA’s national associations unanimously rejected the plan, and UEFA said many other federations and confederations of all sizes around the world did the same. UEFA also thanked fans, leagues, clubs, players, associations, confederations, Prime Ministers, Heads of State and commentators who showed FIFA’s President that football is not for sale.
Gianni Infantino and UEFA
UEFA linked the withdrawal to Gianni Infantino’s own words in 2016, when he told Member Associations: “Of course we have to be transparent. I have been this in the last 15 years of my life in UEFA. You will have to play a part every day in the life of FIFA,” and, “The money of FIFA is your money. It’s not the money of the FIFA President. It’s your money. You are the national associations and the money of FIFA has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.” UEFA said he had failed to deliver on both promises.
UEFA described the proposed deal as shabby, back room and opaque, and said it was anything but transparent. It also pointed to FIFA reserves standing at over $5bn, arguing that money sitting idle in FIFA’s bank account should be used to deliver a kick start for grassroots and the wider game in each of FIFA’s 211 countries rather than be sold off through the competitions themselves.
FIFA Forward programme
UEFA said it would work in the coming days and weeks with its associations and with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure it cannot occur again. It said the review should be thorough and fundamental, that no option should be off the table, and that it would begin work immediately with partners and stakeholders right across the game.
UEFA said it would propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing FIFA Forward programme. That puts the next step on structure, not slogans: if FIFA wants trust rebuilt, the money question now moves from a private sale plan to how the existing system can be used for development across football.
