Gianni Infantino has ‘lost Uefa’s confidence’ as World Cup investment plan fails
By Jamie Gardner, Press Association Chief Sports Reporter
Fifa president Gianni Infantino has “lost the confidence” of Uefa over a plan to sell stakes in a World Cup company to private investors, the European football governing body has said.
Infantino announced overnight that the plan would not proceed after three confederations rejected it, with Uefa going further and saying it would boycott Fifa competitions until the proposal was scrapped.
While Ueda welcomed the decision to drop the proposal, it believes Infantino has lost the trust of the football world through his actions, describing the plan as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”.
“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.
“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.
“That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table. The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
Uefa’s statement referenced an election speech from Infantino a decade ago, when he promised transparency and pledged that “the money of FIFA is your money”.
Uefa added: “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.
“And with reserves standing at over 5 billion US dollars, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.
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“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.
“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.
“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.”
The Football Association echoed UEFA’s statement, with a spokeswoman saying: “We fully support UEFA’s position.
“It is time 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.”
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Infantino was seeking approval from national associations to create a company, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run commercial and operational aspects of its competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cups.
Most controversially, he proposed selling a 20 per cent stake in it to private investors. Fifa confirmed Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner – the brother of United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – was set to lead the investor group.
Infantino said FFE would help “turbocharge” development funding, promising up to an additional 20 million US dollars to associations who backed it by September 19th and big increases more widely across the next three World Cup cycles.
Infantino finally confirmed in the early hours of Saturday that the plan would not go ahead, with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF – the confederation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean – also opposed.
The AFC’s damning statement on Friday morning went further, calling for an “urgent review” of Fifa’s decision-making processes and adding: “This is not the first occasion where major stakeholders have been confronted with significant initiatives after the direction of travel appears to have already been determined.”
After Thursday’s CONCACAF votes, sources close to the confederation told the Press Association its 41 member nations were losing – or had already lost – confidence in Infantino.
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The Swiss’ senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, quit on Friday, calling the FFE proposal a “bad deal for football” while FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a scathing statement about Infantino’s actions to the Associated Press, describing FFE as “the project of one person”.
Lamour added: “FIFA’s own administration was also deceived. This lie by omission over many months and this unilateral exercise of power are not trivial. They are indicative of a lack of trust, a lack of transparency, a lack of discernment, a lack of good governance. And a serious lack of respect.”
The question now is who might seek to challenge Infantino for the presidency, with an election scheduled for March next year.
Paris St Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi has been reported to have support among Uefa for a tilt at the job, but the Qatari also has a number of other positions, including chairman of the European Football Clubs (EFC) umbrella group and chairman of the beIN Media Group and sources close to him have indicated he is not interested.
CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani – currently a Fifa vice-president – has also been mentioned in reports on Saturday.
Infantino appears intent to carry on despite the humiliation over FFE, admitting it had “created divisions” but adding: “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.”
