Graham Dunbar
Updated ,first published
European nations agreed on Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in soccer’s biggest tournament to private equity investors.
“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of the 55 members.
The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe – the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from September 5 and the four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due November 23.
“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”
The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA president Infantino’s offer of $US20 million ($28.5 million) to each of its 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.
Infantino’s secret project was revealed on Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in a new $US20 billion ($28.5 billion) subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) 20 per cent owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Infantino wrote on Tuesday to the 211 members – already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law – that if they approve FFE their promised $US10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $US20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $US86 million each, instead of about $US36 million.
“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.
Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rises among soccer stakeholders including three of the six continental bodies.
FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.
Infantino had seemed – 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey – to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.
Soccer officials have said privately Infantino eyes a commissioner-like role at the FIFA Forward Enterprise spinoff beyond 2031.
“Game over, Gianni #InfantinOUT,” the Football Supporters Europe group, which advises UEFA on fan issues such as ticket prices, posted after the boycott threat.
UEFA detailed on Thursday why soccer officials fear external investors owning a stake of the global game’s biggest events, including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women.
“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”
Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to “turbocharge” funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.
Officials from about 40 UEFA member spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion reserves to fund extra development programs.
“As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive,” the European soccer body said, “unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”
AP
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