UEFA says confidence in Gianni Infantino has collapsed after FIFA investment plan fails

UEFA has said FIFA president Gianni Infantino has lost the confidence of European football and many others in the game after his plan to place World Cup income in a private investment company was abandoned.

The failure of the proposal has opened a wider challenge to Infantino’s decade-long leadership of world football, with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin overseeing opposition to the FIFA president during an extraordinary week of political upheaval.

“No option should be off the table,” Ceferin said.

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

FIFA withdrew the plan early on Saturday, only hours after opposition intensified across the sport and from inside the organisation. The proposal had been announced on Tuesday and would have created a $20bn company to manage the World Cup and other commercial assets with private investors.

UEFA, which represents European football, issued its strongly worded statement after FIFA confirmed the project was being scrapped.

“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 co-operation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”

The proposal had already faced coordinated resistance. UEFA’s 55 member associations agreed on Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions if the plan proceeded. North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also declared their opposition.

Infantino then faced an internal revolt. Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and senior adviser to the FIFA president, resigned on Friday. Cordeiro had represented FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup and called on other senior FIFA employees to speak out.

Kevin Lamour, FIFA’s chief operating officer, also criticised the project in a statement to The Associated Press several hours later. Lamour, who has worked with Infantino at both FIFA and UEFA, said staff had been misled by the lack of transparency surrounding the proposed sale, which had been prepared over several months.

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour wrote. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

The proposed structure would have separated FIFA’s commercial operations, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups, into a $20bn subsidiary. Private investors would have owned 20% of the new business.

FIFA had identified a New York-based investment company as the “anchor investor”. The firm was founded by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

The collapse marks at least the third occasion on which Infantino has pursued an ambitious plan that caused serious divisions in international football.

In 2018, he promoted a confidential $25bn offer from Japan’s SoftBank to establish new competitions. That proposal was viewed by many in the game as a long-term threat to continental club and international tournaments.

Three years later, Infantino proposed staging the World Cup every two years rather than every four. The idea also angered the International Olympic Committee, of which Infantino is an elected member.

Both plans were eventually abandoned by FIFA, although Infantino was re-elected without opposition in 2019 and again in 2023.

The latest dispute could have more serious consequences for his position. UEFA’s response is the first time it has moved swiftly to build support for removing Infantino, who was previously a long-serving employee of the European governing body.

The next FIFA presidential election will take place in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters. Candidates must enter the contest by 18 November, exactly four months before the vote.

FIFA’s statutes allow Infantino to serve one more four-year term. The proposed commercial spin-off appeared to offer a route to a commissioner-style role beyond 2031, potentially with earnings substantially above his current annual salary and bonus package of more than $6m.

A candidate would need 106 votes to secure a majority in a contested election. Although confederations and continents do not necessarily vote as unified blocs, Europe’s 55 members, Asia’s 46 and CONCACAF’s 35 would together provide a substantial base.