UEFA says it has lost confidence in FIFA’s current leadership after world football’s governing body abandoned its controversial $20 billion FIFA Future Enterprise (FFE) proposal, deepening the governance crisis surrounding President Gianni Infantino.
Although UEFA welcomed FIFA’s decision to scrap the investment plan following widespread opposition, the European governing body said the reversal did little to restore trust in Infantino’s administration, accusing it of pursuing opaque reforms without adequate consultation with football stakeholders.
In a strongly worded statement released on Saturday, UEFA said the current FIFA leadership had “not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
The statement followed Infantino’s announcement on Friday that FIFA would no longer pursue the FIFA Future Enterprise project, a proposal that sought to establish a new commercial entity to manage the commercial rights of the FIFA World Cup and other major competitions while attracting private investment reportedly valued at about $20 billion.
The proposal had sparked a global backlash from football confederations and national associations, with critics warning that the plan threatened the governance and independence of the world’s most prestigious football tournament.
UEFA had led the resistance, with its member associations voting to boycott FIFA competitions if the proposal was implemented.
While acknowledging FIFA’s decision to back down, UEFA said the episode had exposed fundamental shortcomings in the organisation’s leadership and decision-making process.
“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.
The European body also recalled promises made by Infantino during his successful campaign for the FIFA presidency in 2016, when he pledged greater transparency and assured member associations that FIFA’s resources would be used solely to develop football.
According to UEFA, those commitments have not been fulfilled.
“When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of FIFA’s member associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said, ‘Of course we have to be transparent,'” UEFA said, adding that the now-abandoned proposal represented “a shabby, back-room, opaque deal” that fell far short of those assurances.
Despite its criticism, UEFA said it remained committed to working with FIFA and other stakeholders to strengthen football’s development funding through the existing FIFA Forward Programme rather than creating a new commercial investment vehicle.
Infantino’s decision to withdraw the FFE proposal marks one of the biggest policy reversals of his presidency and follows days of mounting opposition from across the global football community. Supporters of the plan had argued that external investment would unlock billions of dollars for football development worldwide, but opponents insisted that any reform involving FIFA’s commercial assets should be subject to broad consultation, transparency and collective approval.
The latest dispute is expected to leave lasting questions about FIFA’s governance and its relationship with member associations, even as the immediate threat of a major split within world football appears to have been averted.
