01.08.2026, 15:45 Uhr
By John Bagratuni, dpa
UEFA have said they have lost confidence in the governing body FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino over a now abandoned scheme to allow private investors buying World Cup shares.
The national federations of Denmark and the Netherlands made similar statements after Infantino said early Saturday that the plan was off the table following a fierce backlash - a fact they welcomed.
The affair mounts the pressure on Infantino who has presided over FIFA since 2016 and is seeking re-election for a final term until 2031 next year.
He had vast support from member federations but it remains unclear if that is still the case now.
What UEFA and the FAs say
"The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family," a strong-worded UEFA statement said.
"This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun."
Danish federation DBU chief Jesper Møller said he fully agreed with UEFA that confidence in Infantino had been lost and “that is why I cannot support him either.”
Withdrawing the proposal was “the only right decision – and it was to be expected. International football was at a crossroads where some of the values that form the heart and soul of the game were under pressure,” Møller said.
The KNVB spoke of "a fundamental breach of trust in the leadership style of FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
"The KNVB no longer has any confidence in his leadership. This situation calls for a serious discussion about the future of governance and leadership within FIFA,” it said.
German FA president Bernd Neuendorf called for a change of culture as well as he said that Infantino had acted "in a unilateral, opaque and ultimately irresponsible way."
England's FA also called "for a full and robust review of FIFA’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long-term stewardship of football at its heart.”
The Asian confederation AFC FC said its president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa "expects that, going forward, any initiative that has the potential to impact global football will be presented and discussed with" all stakeholders "in a timely, transparent and meaningful manner."
FIFA had announced on Tuesday that it wanted to sell minority stakes in a planned company overseeing its commercial rights and tournament operations to private investors. Infantino said the project would "turbocharge" football development and members who endorsed this by September 19 would receive a $20 million bonus.
UEFA said it would boycott FIFA events if the project became reality and the FIFA scheme was also rejected by Asia's AFC and the CONCACAF confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean.
That meant that FIFA and Infantino would have no majority from the 211 members and Infantino said early Saturday that the plan was now scrapped.
"Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place," Infantino said.
"Our purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.
"Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support."
It was the second investor debacle for Infantino who in 2018 also had to withdraw a plan regarding Saudi Arabia investment in connection with a new-look Club World Cup.
Infantino under attack ahead of election
Infantino had previously also come under fire for being close with United States president Donald Trump and FIFA scrapping a red card suspension for American player Folarin Balogun at the World Cup after Trump had intervened by phoning Infantino.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that Infantino was “the wrong man" to lead FIFA, Infantino's senior abviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned and FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour was quoted as saying it was only Infantino's project.
Trump said on Friday he hadn't talked with Infantino about the project which however involved his wider family as the company of Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, was a planned leading investor.
The scheme, FIFA Forward Enterprise, could have also allowed Infantino to stay involved after the end of his final term as FIFA president in 2031 in a role as CEO or commisioner.
"Trump famously doesn't like losers. Infantino promised him something he could not deliver," Sky UK said. "How long will it be before even Trump decides that Infantino is yesterday's man?"
UEFA spoke of a "shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through" without any transparency and also questioned why $5 billion of FIFA reserves were not used for the benefit of the game.
"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.
"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. That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table.
"We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in FIFA’s bank account to deliver the kick start that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of FIFA. But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it."
Source: Dpa-international.com
