UEFA held an emergency meeting with all 55 member associations on Thursday in response to the extraordinary World Cup plans put forward by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, journalist Martyn Ziegler of The Times reports. The associations reached a unanimous conclusion. UEFA have now also released a statement of their own.
Infantino has thrown the football world into turmoil. Under his latest plans, FIFA want to place the commercial rights to the World Cup into a new company, FIFA Forward Enterprise. External investors could then buy a stake in that company. The world governing body is promising its 211 affiliated associations a payment of $40 million if they agree to the proposal before 19 September.
Earlier, The Times reported that figures across football were describing it as ‘pure bribery’, while organisations such as UEFA and the KNVB also reacted furiously. The European governing body floated the idea of a World Cup boycott and called Thursday’s emergency meeting.
Thursday’s meeting ended with all 55 UEFA countries backing a boycott of the World Cup. Czechia, who had earlier appeared to support Infantino’s plans, have therefore also changed course. “UEFA and their national associations will not take part in FIFA competitions,” the official statement reads.
“UEFA and their 55 members stand as one. We unanimously and unequivocally reject FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors. The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product.”
“It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters on every continent. No part of it may ever be transferred to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale,” it said fiercely.
“It is both irresponsible and unsustainable that a proposal of this magnitude for football has been conceived in secret and brought to the brink of approval without meaningful consultation with those charged with safeguarding the sport. This is not only a profound failure of leadership, but also a betrayal of FIFA’s duty as guardian of world football.”
Associations around the world are now facing an ultimatum: accept the irreversible takeover of the biggest football competitions or bear the consequences. This is not a ‘democratic decision’, but rule by intimidation, a form of coercion unworthy of an organisation responsible for global football.”
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