UEFA Chief Hits Out at Infantino Over World Cup Monetisation Plan: 'Football Doesn't Need Emperors'

The Slovenian administrator referenced the classic fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen: "We all know the story. The emperor is convinced he is wearing magnificent clothes, told that only the foolish cannot see them. His court plays along until a child simply says out loud what everyone can see: the emperor is naked."

Infantino had proposed that FIFA set up a commercial subsidiary holding the rights to major competitions, including the World Cup and the Club World Cup, allowing private investors to take up to a 20 percent stake in profits. While the head of world football pitched the plan as a way to generate more revenue for football development, Čeferin directly challenged that narrative.

"Perhaps the lesson from the story is that comforting words cannot alter an uncomfortable reality. World football has recently heard plenty of convenient buzzwords: development, democratisation, consultation. Words that, in reality, are being used to describe the exact opposite.

Yes, let us develop, innovate, and make our clubs and competitions even more successful, but let us never forget that football is bigger than those who govern it. We are its custodians, not its owners. No one has the right to sell off its future," the UEFA president declared at the General Assembly in Copenhagen.