UEFA and two other confederations have held initial talks about organising competitions themselves amid the backlash against embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the eSporty News understands.
Europe’s governing body, plus the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF, which oversees football in the Caribbean, North and Central America, have accused Infantino of “deception” following his doomed plan to sell off stakes in the men’s World Cup to private investors.
While it is understood they want to give Infantino the chance to resign and leave his position with dignity without seeking re-election in March next year, the three bodies want to insulate themselves from the unfolding crisis.
UEFA has previously threatened a boycott of FIFA competitions and its decision to hold preliminary discussions with AFC and CONCACAF about coordinating their own tournaments is to make sure the players under their jurisdictions have meaningful opportunities to compete.
Infantino apologised for his proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company to run the commercial and operational aspects of FIFA’s tournaments, with an idea to sell off around 20 per cent to private investors.
But an open letter signed by the heads of UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF has urged FIFA to hold an independent review into Infantino’s scheme, while not naming the Swiss directly.
“Leadership in football is not a possession,” the letter said. “It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it.
“When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.
“A proposal advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation, and pushed toward a deadline before member associations could properly review its terms is not the product of an oversight – it is the product of a design intended to limit scrutiny.
“It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment – not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.
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“FIFA has also committed to presenting a full report on these events to the FIFA Council, once again failing to recognize that proper governance in the face of such a profound lack of judgment would require that such a review be conducted by a fully independent third party, not by FIFA itself, its staff, or by any stakeholder within football. The FIFA administration should play no role in conducting the review.
“There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness. These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership.
“That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve. Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now, for leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.”
