European teams could still boycott competitions, including the World Cup, as Uefa says Fifa's defence of its president, Gianni Infantino, "changes nothing".
The report indicates that european teams could still boycott competitions, including the World Cup, as Uefa says Fifa’s defence of its president, Gianni Infantino, “changes nothing”.
It further notes that the English FA has sent a letter withdrawing its support for Infantino in reaction to the plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
European governing body Uefa stated in a statement its conditions had not been met, despite Infantino’s plan being aborted.
“First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly,” Uefa’s statement said. “Assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.
UEFA has already stated it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal a “shabby, back-room, opaque deal”.
Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a proposal for private investment in its tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups, through the FFE subsidiary.
World governing body Fifa stated during Wednesday’s meeting “mistakes” regarding FFE were “acknowledged”, saying it was “not the intention” for the Fifa Council and members’ association to “feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently”.
Uefa’s statement in response added: “Uefa made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency. That position holds.
“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the Fifa president (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing.”
Infantino arrived at Fifa’s offices in Rabat, Morocco on Wednesday in now-familiar fashion, chauffeured to the building in a motorcade, sitting in the back of a Mercedes with blacked-out windows.
Some questioned whether he would still be the Fifa president when he left.
Yet if anything, on the surface at least, Infantino appears emboldened.
This was not the 56-year-old being ordered to a hearing to explain his actions.
It was Infantino who summoned members of the Fifa management board to sit around the table with him, to talk through the events of the last week.
