UEFA demands FIFA accountability after Infantino-backed competition sale collapses

UEFA has withdrawn its confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the governing body abandoned a controversial plan to sell stakes in its competitions, including the World Cup, to private investors.

Pressure on Infantino has intensified following the collapse of the proposal on Friday evening. The plan sought to raise £3.1bn by selling an interest in the most valuable tournament in football to private investors led by Josh Kushner, who is related to US President Donald Trump.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, led the opposition to the proposal. In a lengthy statement issued on Saturday morning, it said it no longer trusted Infantino’s leadership.

“UEFA welcomes the decision by FIFA to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions, including the World Cup, to private entities,” it 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 also thanked “all the fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, national and continental associations who opposed this plan”, along with “many prime ministers and heads of state and commentators who demonstrated to the FIFA president that football is not for sale”.

The organisation said the process behind the proposal had raised serious concerns.

“We cannot continue in this way, with secret plans on quick timelines, orchestrated by unknown individuals and of questionable benefit to the game,” UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”

It added that it would work with its member associations and other continental confederations in the coming days and weeks to examine how the situation had developed and create safeguards against a repeat.

“This review must be comprehensive and fundamental, and no option should be excluded,” the statement said. “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence, but also the confidence of many other members of the football family.”

UEFA referred to promises Infantino made when seeking the votes of FIFA’s member associations to become president in 2016. At the time, he said: “Of course we have to be transparent. I have been transparent for the last 15 years of my life at UEFA, and you will have to play a role every day in the life of FIFA.”

Infantino also told stakeholders: “FIFA’s money is your money. It is not the money of the FIFA president, it is yours, the national associations, and FIFA’s money has to serve the development of football and nothing else.”

UEFA said Infantino had failed to honour both commitments.

“The miserable and mysterious deal he arranged behind closed doors and tried to force through was not transparent at all,” it said.

The governing body also claimed that, with FIFA’s reserves exceeding $5bn, Infantino had failed to use the associations’ money for the benefit of football.

UEFA said it would immediately begin working with partners and stakeholders across the world and throughout the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through FIFA’s existing FIFA Forward programme.

“We must start using some of that money sitting idle in FIFA’s bank account to provide the strong boost that grassroots football and the game in general need in each of FIFA’s 211 countries,” it said. “But we do not need to sell our valuable assets to pay for it.”

UEFA described the withdrawal of the proposal as “a victory for the entire game”, but warned that the dispute was not over.

“The proposal is over, and the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun,” it concluded.