Gianni Infantino has 'lost UEFA's confidence' as World Cup investment plan fails

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 said Saturday.

Infantino announced late Friday 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.

- Could Infantino lose FIFA presidency after World Cup plans were rejected?

- Infantino scraps FIFA World Cup sell-off plan after backlash

While UEFA welcomed the decision to drop the proposal, it said Infantino has lost the trust of the football world through his actions.

"No option should be off the table," said European soccer body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.

"The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family."

Later Saturday, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (Concacaf) called for accountability, saying: "A [World Cup] proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident. It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first.

"This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behavior. A full review of this leadership must now take place."

Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday's announcement.

Infantino was forced to scrap the plan early Saturday after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia's soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, issued its blistering statement hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.

"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," UEFA said. "We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.

"It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again."

Norwegian soccer federation president Lise Klaveness, an elected member of the UEFA executive committee, said steps must be taken to protect the integrity of the sport.

"The entire framework of international football cooperation was unnecessarily put at risk in pursuit of individual interests rather than the best interests of the game," Klaveness said Saturday. "This has been visible to many for a long time, including those of us elected to positions intended to safeguard checks and balances and provide ongoing oversight. We have to recognize that these mechanisms have not worked well enough."

Infantino' audacious bid fell apart after UEFA's 55-member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

Concacaf's statement added that FIFA leaders have "a duty of service over power. Where that duty is not upheld, accountability cannot be optional."

The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, said "the future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game."

The English Football Association echoed UEFA's statement, with a spokeswoman saying: "We fully support UEFA's position.

"It is time for a full and robust review of FIFA's leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long-term stewardship of football at its heart."

There was also an internal revolt.

Infantino's senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino's lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.

"It is the project of one person," wrote Lamour, a longtime colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and UEFA. "Not only must this project not go ahead ... but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions."

Infantino had proposed spinning off FIFA's commercial businesses -- including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women -- into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The "anchor investor," described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm launched by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Infantino said FFE would help "turbocharge" development funding, promising up to an additional 20 million US dollars (£15m) to associations who backed it by September 19 and big increases more widely across the next three World Cup cycles.

The question now is who might seek to challenge Infantino for the presidency, with an election scheduled for March next year.

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi has been reported to have support among UEFA for a tilt at the job, but the Qatari also has a number of other positions, including chairman of the European Football Clubs (EFC) umbrella group and chairman of the beIN Media Group and sources close to him have indicated he is not interested.

Concacaf president Victor Montagliani -- currently a FIFA vice-president -- has also been mentioned in reports on Saturday.

The Qatar FA issued a statement in support of Infantino on Saturday.

Its president, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, said: "We welcome FIFA President Gianni Infantino's decision to withdraw the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal in the interest of the global football community.

"While the proposal had merit, we applaud the wisdom behind prioritising unity among Member Associations. The Qatar Football Association fully supports President Infantino's efforts to continue growing and strengthening the game globally."

Infantino appears intent to carry on despite the humiliation over FFE, admitting it had "created divisions" but adding: "My intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support."

PA and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here to read article