By Alan Baldwin and Ian Ransom
LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) – European soccer’s governing body UEFA and its 55 member nations on Thursday voted to boycott all FIFA tournaments in what could be a knockout blow to the global soccer organisation’s proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup to external investors.
In a statement that pulled no punches, Europe presented a united front to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, whose proposal has caused uproar only weeks after the World Cup was held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Six of the top 10 ranked teams in both men’s and women’s soccer are from Europe, including world champions Spain.
The Asian Football Confederation also issued a scathing letter to the continent’s 47 member associations and warned the proposal would never succeed without the support of all six regional blocs.
UEFA’s stance raised the stakes dramatically, with immediate implications for the 2027 women’s World Cup due to be hosted in Brazil next year.
“We unanimously and unequivocally reject FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors,” said UEFA.
“No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”
NOT FOR SALE
UEFA said the World Cup was not for sale and could not be treated as an investment product or surrendered to private investors.
Infantino’s plan would create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events, while offering minority stakes to private investors.
He has offered FIFA’s 211 member associations $40 million each if they agree to the proposal by September 19 as part of a $10 billion package to become available from January 1, 2027.
If rejected, the package would revert to $2.7 billion previously offered, around $10 million per member association.
“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” UEFA said of a proposal which has triggered a major governance crisis.
“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever. Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”
UEFA, whose elite club competitions generated €4.4 billion ($5 billion) in the 2024/25 season alone, and FIFA have long waged a battle for power and control in a sport that has become a mighty money machine.
Infantino, who is up for reelection as head of FIFA next year, has cast the move as pushing global “democratisation” by broadening access to its financial largesse.
Others have taken a different view.
“Football belongs to the fans, not billionaire investors. Enough is enough. It’s time to take a stand to protect our game,” said Britain’s culture minister Lisa Nandy after the UEFA statement.
AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa said his body was not consulted by FIFA at any level before the public announcement. That, and the lack of any detailed governance, financial or legal analysis of the proposal, was “totally unacceptable”, he added.
“FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football, which are based on solidarity, cooperation and transparency,” added the Bahraini.
“Such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.”
AFRICAN CONFEDERATION YET TO MEET
CONCACAF, the regional bloc for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, also criticised FIFA for a lack of consultation.
The African confederation’s executive committee will meet next week to evaluate the proposal, while the Oceania confederation, the smallest regional bloc with 11 full member nations, said it would discuss the proposal at a meeting next month.
South American governing body CONMEBOL has yet to comment publicly.
Players’ bodies have also expressed opposition to FIFA’s plan, with FIFPRO, the global players’ union, warning the proposal would irreversibly reshape the incentives underpinning the tournaments in which players work and build careers.
Australia’s players union joined the criticism on Thursday, saying the world governing body was putting pressure on member associations to wave the proposal through while sidelining the athletes and fans who generate the value of the tournaments.
“At a time when football desperately requires greater transparency, accountability and good governance, proposals of this significance raise questions about who the game is run by and in whose interests,” Professional Footballers Australia said in a statement.
(Writing by Alan Baldwin, reporting by Ian Ransom, Michael Church and Shrivathsa Sridhar, Editing by Nick Mulvenney, Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)
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