Criticism makes Infantino back down and UEFA celebrates it

BarcelonaGianni Infantino has backtracked on his proposal to create a subsidiary to sell part of the World Cup and Club World Cup to private investors. "After listening to all opinions, it has become clear that the project has created divisions in such a way that, regardless of support, it is no longer in the interest of the objective initially set out," explained the FIFA president in a statement distributed through social networks.

The top leader of world football has had to back down after the avalanche of criticism received, with UEFA as the most belligerent confederation. The frontal rejection of the European football governing body translated on Thursday into the threat of boycotting all FIFA competitions and not participating in the next World Cups: neither the women's, in 2027, nor the men's, in 2030. Internally, Infantino was also increasingly isolated: Carlos Cordeiro, until then Infantino's right-hand man, resigned on Friday from his advisory position and strongly criticized the FIFA president.

The UEFA was also joined by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). All three showed their rejection of the proposal. Meanwhile, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) announced the start of a "consultation process" among its members: "We understand that the development of football requires decisions of a commercial and financial nature. However, these decisions must always be at the service of football and never above its essence," they stated in a statement, hinting at how they would eventually lean.

The avalanche of criticism and lack of support have made Infantino back down. The proposal of the highest leader of world football intended to create a subsidiary – under the name of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) – to partially sell to private investors the football event that generates the most millions: the World Cup."Nobody is selling football. It is something FIFA would never consider. Everyone has the right to express their opposition and ask for more clarifications, but no entity can claim to represent the 211 member associations worldwide. Each member association must be allowed to examine the proposal and participate in defining its own future. These are FIFA's democratic principles," Infantino defended in a new statement early Thursday to Friday, before definitively realizing that he would not have enough support in a vote that should have been held on September 19.

Lack of sufficient support for Infantino's plans

The FIFA president, who is left very weakened after this whole process, needed 106 votes from the 211 member federations. He knew he had against him the 55 votes from UEFA, the 35 from CONCACAF, and the 46 from the Asian Football Confederation, which would already add up to 136. With the addition of the Confederation of African Football, with 54 votes, the Oceania Football Confederation, with 11, and CONMEBOL, with 10 members, having expressed their doubts, it would not be enough. Before finally throwing in the towel, Infantino was confident in his ability to convince federation leaders on a personal level.

The highest FIFA official had powerful financial allies in the FIFA Forward Enterprise project and hoped to gain votes with the promise of almost 50 million dollars (about 43 million euros) to the federations over a four-year period. He has withdrawn: "The FIFA Forward Enterprise project aimed to lay the groundwork to further strengthen member associations and our global sport, especially in those countries where support is most needed," he defended in his resignation statement, in which he has not uttered a mea culpa.

Despite backing down from the initial proposal, Infantino has hinted that he will try to carry out other initiatives again. "Looking ahead, my intention is to bring all stakeholders together in the coming days and weeks, in a spirit of common interest for our sport and with the aim of continuing to drive football everywhere, especially in those countries that need our support the most," he concluded.

UEFA attacks FIFA

The reality, however, is that UEFA has profited from Infantino's resignation. The European football governing body has lashed out at the FIFA president and stated that it has definitively lost trust in him. “We cannot continue like this, with these secret plans being fast-tracked, cooked up by anonymous individuals and with dubious benefit to the sport. We must identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” UEFA stated in a press release this Saturday. This is a long-standing war between the two most powerful bodies in the football world, at odds for years over control of revenue, schedules (increasingly packed with matches), and the governance of international football.

The institution presided over by Aleksander Ceferin calls for working with other confederations to “reflect on how this has happened and develop a plan to ensure it does not happen again”. UEFA has stated that Infantino has not fulfilled the transparency promises he made when he was elected in 2016. “The murky, closed-door, and opaque agreement he devised and tried to impose has been anything but transparent”.

In line with UEFA, the German Football Federation has been one of the first to demand explanations. Its president, Bernd Neuendorf, has asked this Saturday to “clarify, without a shadow of a doubt, all the procedures related to this project driven by Infantino”. And he adds: “The FIFA president has acted on his own, opaquely and, ultimately, irresponsibly”.

Infantino is playing for re-election in 2027

Finally, UEFA celebrates the renunciation of Infantino's project, stating in its statement that "it is a victory for all of football", but warns that the dispute with FIFA is not over: "The task of restoring confidence in FIFA has only just begun". It is a direct jab at Infantino, who needs to recover from this hard blow if he wants to maintain his options to be re-elected as president on March 18, 2027. In fact, several international media outlets have already pointed out the possibility that UEFA may try to force the resignation of the FIFA president at the Extraordinary Congress on November 23.

Among the candidates to succeed Infantino, speculation has included the UEFA president himself, Aleksander Ceferin; the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani; the Pole Dariusz Mioduski, owner of Legia Warsaw; the Bahraini Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, who came second in the FIFA presidency vote ten years ago and is currently the AFC president, and the Qatari Nasser al-Khalifa, owner of PSG, who has the support of the Arab world. None of them has publicly expressed their desire to occupy the most coveted throne in world football, but their names are already spreading like wildfire.