Uefa says it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s Fifa leadership as the fallout from the scrapped controversial investment plan intensifies.
On Saturday, Infantino said Fifa would no longer proceed with the proposal to sell stakes in the governing body’s competitions to private investors.
Uefa – which governs European football – had earlier voted to boycott World Cups if the plans went ahead, and other governing bodies also voiced their opposition.
On Saturday, Uefa said it welcomed the decision to withdraw the plan, describing it as “a victory for the whole game”.
It also accused Infantino of failing to deliver on promises, quoting a speech he gave when campaigning to become Fifa president in 2016.
The fallout from the plans means Infantino is now under immense pressure as he seeks re-election for a fourth term as president at the Fifa Congress in March.
“The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family,” Uefa’s statement read.
“When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of Fifa’s member associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said: ‘Of course we have to be transparent.’
“He told the assembled stakeholders: ‘The money of Fifa is your money. It’s not the money of the Fifa president. 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 were anything but transparent.”
What did Uefa’s statement say?
Uefa had been highly critical of the proposals since they were first reported in the media on Tuesday.
In a powerful, lengthy statement released several hours after Fifa announced it had scrapped the plans, Uefa said:
It “cannot keep going on” with “secret schemes of fast-track timescales cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game” Those responsible for the plan should be identified and held to account It would devise a plan “with its associations and in close co-operation with other confederations” to make sure this “cannot occur again” And it would work with partners to “propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing Fifa Forward programme”
It also accused Infantino of “failing to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game”.
“We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in Fifa’s bank account to deliver the kickstart that the grassroots and the wider game need,” the statement added.
“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.”
Fifa has yet to respond to Uefa’s statement.
The Football Association said it supports Uefa’s position, adding: “It is time for a full and robust review of Fifa’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently.”
By BBC Sports
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