The football planet schism continues: Europe's national teams out of the World Cup

BarcelonaIn a new statement early Wednesday to Thursday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has for the first time apologized for the "mistakes" made in his intention to partially sell the World Cup and Club World Cup to private investors, but has stated that he will continue to be FIFA president after receiving the support of senior officials in a meeting held this Wednesday in Morocco.

Infantino convened the members of the board of directors at the FIFA office for Africa, in Rabat, due to the growing criticism and lack of support he had received in recent days for his initiative to privatize part of the aforementioned competitions through the subsidiary FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). Four hours after the end of the meeting, the world football governing body issued a statement in which it highlighted the support its president had received.

UEFA already declared at the weekend that it had lost confidence in Infantino and described the proposal as a "shady, opaque deal orchestrated behind the scenes." This Thursday, the European football governing body reacted to FIFA's latest statement, reiterating that, as it had already stated, it has lost confidence in Infantino and that it maintains the boycott of FIFA competitions by the 55 federations that are part of its umbrella.

"UEFA member federations made the conditions linked to non-participation in FIFA competitions very clear," reads the beginning of the European football governing body's latest communication to which ARA has had access. "Firstly, the proposals to sell the main competitions had to be withdrawn, and secondly, guarantees had to be offered that there would be no attempt to distort football in this way again," the text continues.

"These conditions have not been met. Furthermore, UEFA made it very clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino's presidency. This position remains," assures the body, convinced of overthrowing Infantino and achieving a change of guard at the helm of FIFA's government. "Yesterday's announcement [this Wednesday] that some people hired by the FIFA president (and whose professional careers depend on his favor) agree with him changes nothing," the text concludes.

FIFA denies having handed over the final of the 2030 World Cup to Morocco

FIFA has also denied that Gianni Infantino offered the 2030 World Cup final to Morocco, as had been published by The Times. The body chaired by Infantino has branded this information as "false and misleading" in a communication with the Efe agency. This Wednesday the British newspaper had indicated that the FIFA president would have proposed to the African country to host the final of the World Cup, which the Moroccan country is organizing together with Spain and Portugal. This proposal was framed as a move by Infantino to regain support after his decline in popularity.

The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, requested in February that it be held at Camp Nou. The Barça stronghold would be the stadium with the largest capacity in the Spanish state, with 104,000 seats when it is finished. El Hassan II, the stadium in Morocco bidding to host the 2030 World Cup final, has a capacity of 115,000 spectators.

Barça's footballers, pending the boycott

For the moment, what is on the table is the boycott that UEFA reiterated this very Thursday. Besides affecting the World Cup, which is the main event, both the women's (summer 2027) and men's (summer 2030) tournaments, UEFA's threat also affects lower categories. The Barcelona team is waiting to see how everything develops because there are six players, including Clara Serrajordi, who play a very active role in the first team, called up for the U-20 World Cup scheduled from September 5 to 27.