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Gianni Infantino’s FIFA presidency remains in crisis as football associations around the world targeted his leadership after a controversial private investment plan was dropped on Saturday.
“No option should be off the table,” said European soccer body UEFA just hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.
FIFA had floated the plan on Tuesday, saying it could raise up to $4.2 billion based on a valuation of $20 billion for a new commercial subsidiary, called the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which it proposed would run events such as the World Cup and Club World Cup.
It said that, if approved, the project could provide each of FIFA’s 211 member associations with a one-off payment of $20 million in early 2027, and increase their funding allocation for the 2027-2030 cycle from $8 million to $20 million.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.
In a blistering statement, UEFA declared “the current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
“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,” UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.
“It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”
UEFA said that Infantino had “failed to deliver” on promises he made when he successfully first sought election in 2016 — namely to be “transparent” and that FIFA’s money was “your (the member associations) money” and “not the money of the FIFA President”.
“The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent.
“And with reserves standing at over $5bn, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.”
CONCACAF calls for ‘a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency’
Later Saturday, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (CONCACAF) called for accountability, calling for “a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency” while slamming Infantino’s “poor governance and leadership”.
Infantino’s plan had “advanced outside every established governance framework, without transparency, consultation or due process.”
CONCACAF’s statement added that FIFA leaders have “a duty of service over power. Where that duty is not upheld, accountability cannot be optional.”
It was not just continental bodies condemning the move.
English football’s Football Association (FA) said there should be “a full and robust review of FIFA’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently”.
The German FA (DFB) called for a complete overhaul within FIFA.
“Together with UEFA and other confederations, we must ensure that a fundamentally different culture takes hold at FIFA — a culture where, above all, decisions are once again discussed and made by members within the governing bodies.”
Additional sources • AP, AFP