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

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

Infantino convened members of the board of directors at the FIFA office for Africa, in Rabat, due to 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 highlighting the support its president had received.

UEFA, the European football governing body, which had already declared last weekend that it had lost confidence in Infantino, and described the proposal as a "shady, opaque agreement orchestrated behind the scenes". This Wednesday, UEFA reacted to FIFA's latest statement, assuring that, as it had already stated, it has lost confidence in Infantino and maintains the boycott of the 55 federations that form its umbrella in FIFA competitions.

"UEFA member federations made very clear the conditions linked to non-participation in FIFA competitions," began the latest communication from the European football governing body 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 "Firstly, the proposals to sell the main competitions had to be withdrawn, and secondly, guarantees had to be offered that there would be no further attempts to distort football in this way," the text continues.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 bringing about a change of guard at the helm of FIFA's governance. "Yesterday's announcement [this Wednesday] that some individuals 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 reported by The Times. The body led by Infantino has branded this information as "false and misleading" in communication with the EFE agency. This Wednesday, the British newspaper had pointed out that the FIFA president had proposed to the African country to host the World Cup final, which the Moroccan country is organizing jointly 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 last February that it be held at the Camp Nou. The Barça ground would be the stadium with the largest capacity in Spain, with 104,000 seats when finished. The Hassan II, the stadium in Morocco bidding to host the 2030 World Cup final, has a capacity of 115,000 spectators.

Barça's female footballers, awaiting 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, women's (summer 2027) and men's (summer 2030), UEFA's threat also affects lower categories. The Barça team is waiting to see how everything unfolds because there are six players, including Clara Serrajordi, with a very active role in the first team, called up for the U-20 World Cup scheduled from September 5 to 27.