UEFA expressed concern over its relationship with FIFA on Saturday, saying the overall confidence in world football’s governing body has been shaken despite the withdrawal of a controversial proposal to bring private investment into the sport. In a statement released on Saturday, European football’s governing body welcomed FIFA’s decision to abandon the plan but made it clear that the episode had raised serious questions about trust, transparency and governance within the organisation.
The proposal, championed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, involved establishing a commercial entity valued at around USD 20 billion to manage the governing body’s flagship competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, with a minority stake offered to private investors.
The initiative drew widespread opposition from several continental football bodies, with UEFA joining CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in publicly rejecting the proposal. The backlash ultimately forced FIFA to reverse course and shelve the plan.
Also Read: FIFA scraps controversial plan to sell commercial rights to private investors
“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. It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation 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 said in the official statement.
“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. I have been doing this for the last 15 years of my life in UEFA. You will have to play a part every day in the life of FIFA,” before telling the assembled stakeholders, “The money of FIFA is your money. It’s not the money of the FIFA President. It’s your money. You are the national associations and the money of FIFA has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else,” the statement added.
More accountability
UEFA also called for stronger accountability and improved governance in the wake of the controversy, stressing that decisions with long-term implications for global football should be made through greater consultation and transparency.
“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 $5bn, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game,” UEFA said.
“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,” it added.
