Gianni Infantino has ‘lost Uefa’s confidence’ as World Cup investment plan fails

European governing body criticises 'shabby, back room, opaque' deal.

THUMBS DOWN: Gianni Infantino, the beleaguered president of FIFA

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has “lost the confidence” of Uefa over a plan to sell stakes in a World Cup company to private investors, the European football governing body has said.

Infantino announced overnight that the plan would not proceed after three confederations rejected it, with Uefa going further and saying it would boycott Fifa competitions until the proposal was scrapped.

While Uefa welcomed the decision to drop the proposal, it believes Infantino has lost the trust of the football world through his actions, describing the plan as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal”.

“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.

“It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, Uefa will work with its associations and in close co-operation 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’s statement referenced an election speech from Infantino a decade ago, when he promised transparency and pledged that “the money of Fifa is your money”.

Uefa added: “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 5 billion US dollars, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.

“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.

“This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.”