European nations vow FIFA World Cup boycott over Infantino's private equity plan as opposition spreads

GENEVA (AP) — European nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in football’s biggest tournament to private equity investors.

The North American football body rejected his plan later the same day.

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European football body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations.

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from September 5 — and the four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

That decision is due November 23.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA President Infantino’s offer of US$20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

Later Thursday, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) met and announced it rejected Infantino’s plan.

In a statement, CONCACAF said members “expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies.” It also questioned the need for outside investment “following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Infantino’s secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in a new US$20 billion subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), 20% owned by private investors.

The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members — already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law — that if they approve FFE, their promised US$10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to US$20 million.

He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be US$86 million each, instead of about US$36 million.

“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

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