06.08.2026, 16:52 Uhr
A European boycott of the World Cup remains in place, UEFA has said, hours after FIFA indicated its under-fire president Gianni Infantino would carry on and still had its “full support”.
Infantino has been under pressure for over a week after a controversial plan to sell stakes in a company to run the World Cup to private investors first emerged on July 28.
The plan was rejected by UEFA and two other continental confederations, with UEFA also stating its 55 member countries would boycott FIFA competitions until the plan was scrapped.
FIFA’s management board gave Infantino its backing at a meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, but the European confederation said on Thursday that “changes nothing”.
“UEFA’s associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non participation in FIFA competitions,” a UEFA statement read.
“First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.
“These conditions have not been met. In addition, UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency. That position holds.
“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing.”
UEFA objected to the process Infantino had followed but most of all to the prospect of private investors having an influence over a sporting competition, amid fears they could push for ever bigger, ever more frequent events.
Source: Dpa-international.com
