UEFA Welcomes FIFA's Withdrawal from World Cup Stake Sale Plans

UEFA welcomes FIFA's decision to abandon its plan to sell a stake in its tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors.

The proposal was unanimously rejected by UEFA's national associations, as well as numerous other federations and confederations worldwide whose primary task is to protect football. UEFA extends its gratitude to all fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, associations, and confederations who opposed the scheme. Thanks are also extended to the many prime ministers, heads of state, and commentators who showed the FIFA president that football is not for sale.

"We cannot continue like this – with secret schemes hastily developed by anonymous individuals and with questionable benefit to the game. We must identify those responsible and hold them accountable," stated the European governing body. The statement further noted that in the coming days and weeks, UEFA should work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to analyze how this situation arose and to develop a plan to ensure such an event does not recur. This review must be thorough and fundamental, with no option excluded. According to UEFA, the current FIFA leadership has lost not only the trust of the European body but also that of many other members of the football family.

The statement also recalls Gianni Infantino's promise when, in 2016, he sought the trust and votes of FIFA member associations to be elected president: "Of course, we have to be transparent. I have been for the last 15 years of my life at UEFA. You will have to play a role every day in the life of FIFA." He then told the assembled stakeholders: "FIFA's money is your money. It is not the FIFA president's money. It is your money. You are the national associations, and FIFA's money must serve the development of football, and nothing else."

UEFA believes he failed to deliver on both promises. "The dirty, backroom, and opaque deal he concocted and tried to impose was anything but transparent." With reserves exceeding $5 billion, he also failed to utilize the associations' money for the benefit of the game, according to the European governing body. UEFA will immediately begin working with partners and stakeholders worldwide and at all levels of the game to propose a new way of resource distribution through FIFA's existing "Forward" program.

"We must start using some of this money, which sits unused in FIFA's bank account, to provide the impetus that grassroots football and the game as a whole need in each of FIFA's 211 member countries. But we don't need to sell off the family silver to pay for it. This is a victory for the entire game. But it should not be the end of the story. The proposal has been withdrawn. The task of restoring trust in FIFA is only just beginning," concludes UEFA's statement.