Uefa says Infantino has lost its confidence after Fifa drops World Cup rights plan

Uefa says it has lost confidence in Fifa president Gianni Infantino after football’s world governing body abandoned plans to sell a stake in the commercial rights to the World Cup.

The proposal, which was withdrawn after a rapid backlash from regional confederations, would have raised up to $4.2bn by selling about 20% of a new private-investment-backed unit responsible for running Fifa events, including the World Cup.

Uefa’s 55 member associations unanimously rejected the plan earlier this week. It described Fifa’s decision to abandon the scheme as a “victory for the whole game”, but warned that restoring trust in the organisation would be a much longer process.

“The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family,” Uefa said in a statement.

The European governing body thanked fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, associations and confederations who had opposed the proposal, as well as the prime ministers, heads of state and commentators who had told the Fifa president that “football is not for sale”.

“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.

“We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.”

Uefa said the controversy highlighted the need for greater scrutiny of decisions that could change football’s governance and commercial structure. It also questioned Infantino’s record on promises made when he was elected Fifa president in 2016.

At the time, Infantino pledged to operate transparently and said Fifa’s money belonged to its national associations.

“On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back-room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through was anything but transparent,” Uefa added.

“And with reserves standing at over $5bn, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.

“Uefa will begin work immediately with partners and stakeholders all over the world and right across the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing Fifa Forward programme.”

Fifa and Infantino declined to comment on Uefa’s statement.

The plan was announced by Infantino on Tuesday and immediately drew objections from football’s regional confederations, which said they had not been consulted about a proposal with the potential to reshape the commercial organisation of the sport.

Infantino subsequently said Fifa had listened “carefully to all the views” before deciding to abandon the project.

The Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, welcomed the reversal on Saturday and said major proposals should be discussed openly with football’s governing bodies.

Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman said he expected “any initiative that has the potential to impact global football will be presented and discussed with the confederations, the Fifa council, member associations and other stakeholders in a timely, transparent and meaningful manner.”

“The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game.”

Football Australia chairperson Anter Isaac also supported the principle of innovation but said it could not come at the expense of established safeguards.

“Football has never stood still, nor should it,” Isaac said.

“Some principles, however, should never change. Integrity. Independence. Good governance. Transparency. Meaningful consultation. Due process.

“These are not constraints on progress. They are what make lasting progress possible.”

The dispute comes as Infantino prepares to seek a fourth term as Fifa president. He said in April that he intended to stand for re-election for the 2027-2031 term.

Infantino succeeded Sepp Blatter in 2016 and has since been re-elected unopposed twice, appearing to maintain firm control of the organisation. His return to office had been widely expected to be a formality.

However, experts told Reuters that the reaction to the abandoned commercial proposal had revealed dissatisfaction among some Fifa members. They said the controversy could make Infantino’s route to re-election more difficult before next March’s Fifa congress in Morocco.

“He’s obviously been kind of egomaniacal in everything that he’s done. I know that he’s rubbed many of the member associations the wrong way with some of his decisions,” Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing analyst, said.

“Some of the countries that have been awarded World Cups have been kind of questionable. Politics has gotten involved in this a little too much.”

The speed of the reversal has added to the political pressure on Infantino. Less than two weeks earlier, he had been celebrating what was described as the most commercially successful World Cup in history.

“It’s hard to think of a situation where a person’s political fortunes changed so rapidly,” said economist Victor Matheson, a sports business expert at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

“As close as two weeks ago, he’s riding, you know, on top of the world, the most successful sports mega-event in the history of this planet. And just two weeks later, he’s fighting for his political life.”