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UEFA has declared a loss of confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino in a strongly-worded statement marking the collapse of the contentious plan to sell shares in the World Cup.
European football's governing body has a lengthy history of clashes with FIFA and had been the most vocal opponent of Infantino's widely-criticized proposal, threatening to pull out of future tournaments including the World Cup if the plan moved forward.
FIFA and Infantino initially acknowledged the opposition but pledged to push ahead, before ultimately conceding defeat and scrapping the proposal late Friday evening.
Attention now turns squarely to Infantino ahead of next year's FIFA presidential elections. While he was originally expected to run unchallenged, he now faces the prospect of serious competition, with UEFA highlighting the urgent need for FIFA to restore credibility following such a divisive episode.
UEFA's Statement in Full
"UEFA welcomes FIFA's decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions—including the World Cup—into private hands.
"The proposal was unanimously rejected by UEFA's national associations and by many other federations and confederations of all sizes around the world, whose job it is to protect football.
"UEFA thanks all the fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, associations and confederations that opposed the scheme, alongside the many Prime Ministers, Heads of State and commentators who have demonstrated to the FIFA President that football is not for sale.
"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. 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. That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table. The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.
"When Gianni Infantino sought the trust and votes of FIFA's Member Associations to elect him as President in 2016, he stated, 'Of course we have to be transparent. I have been this in the last 15 years of my life in UEFA. You will have to play a part every day in the life of FIFA,' before telling those gathered, 'The money of FIFA is your money. It's not the money of the FIFA President. It's your money. You are the national associations and the money of FIFA has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.'
"On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through was anything but transparent.
"And with reserves standing at over $5 billion, he has also failed to use associations' money for the benefit of the game.
"UEFA will begin work immediately with partners and stakeholders all over the world and right across the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing FIFA Forward programme.
"We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in FIFA's bank account to deliver the kick start that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of FIFA. But we don't need to sell off the family silver to pay for it.
"This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun."
How Can Infantino Recover?
Confidence in Infantino began to wane throughout the World Cup, which featured numerous changes that many felt were driven primarily by profit maximization. Record revenues of $15 billion underscored the dramatic rise in costs.
Infantino has also faced calls to address questions surrounding his ties to United States President Donald Trump, particularly after the decision to overturn the ban imposed on USMNT forward Folarin Balogun following pressure from the White House.
This latest controversy, as emphasized in UEFA's statement, has only intensified allegations of opacity surrounding Infantino, whose tenure as president now faces mounting scrutiny ahead of the forthcoming elections.
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UEFA and its Member Associations are pushing for change at the top level. That may come through a shift in leadership, but in the meantime, Infantino must find a way to restore the faith of the numerous nations that have grown disillusioned with the FIFA president.
A genuine commitment to investment, rather than a relentless pursuit of new revenue streams, would be a meaningful first step.