Fifa president Gianni Infantino is a man who likes to get his own way. But he now faces the biggest crisis of his time in charge of international football’s governing body. There is every chance it could ultimately cost him his job, and he has no one to blame but himself. In an unprecedented move, England and the other European nations belonging to Uefa, the European football league, have agreed to boycott all Fifa competitions if Infantino presses ahead with his plans to sell shares in the World Cup to private investors.
Fifa has reacted by insisting it won’t change course. ‘Nobody is selling football,’ it said in a statement. ‘This is not something Fifa would ever entertain.’ Few can predict with certainty what happens next.
The unanimous decision in favour of a boycott was taken at a hastily convened crisis meeting of Uefa’s 55 member nations over the hugely controversial sell-off plans to generate £3.1 billion in investment for Fifa tournaments. The talks lasted almost two hours, culminating in a united front. This was despite initial fears that some of the smaller nations, tempted by the huge sums on offer, might back the plans. The message conveyed in the official statement was blunt:
The World Cup is not the plaything of private speculators
As a result of today’s discussion, no Uefa national teams will participate in any Fifa competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that Fifa will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.
The prospect of the World Cup being played without the major European nations – football’s traditional powerhouses – means that Infantino’s scheme is effectively dead in the water (whatever Fifa might say in public). No investor is likely to put money into a competition that doesn’t feature some of the biggest and best national teams. The plans were dealt a further blow when Concacaf, which represents North and Central America and the Caribbean, also unanimously rejected the plans – although it stopped short of threatening to withdraw from Fifa competitions.
Make no mistake, this is a huge moment for the sport. A source inside the Uefa meeting said there was ‘lots of anger’ at Fifa’s behaviour, with European football’s leaders believing that the future of the sport was on the line. Debbie Hewitt, the president of the English Football Association, is said to have given a ‘very tough’ endorsement of the boycott decision. An FA spokesman later added:
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our European colleagues and fully support the collective view. We oppose Fifa’s plans – the Fifa World Cup belongs to football and always will.
It is believed that European footballing chiefs also took soundings from their national governments, many of which are understood to have privately given their backing to a boycott. European football associations, including the English FA, are now expected to write to Fifa this week with formal notification of the boycott threat unless it changes course. It would begin with next year’s Women’s World Cup, while the first age-group Fifa tournament to be boycotted is likely to be the under-20 women’s competition taking place in September. Poland is the host nation, and England is one of the six European participants. The clock is ticking.
All of this leaves Infantino in a very tricky position. He has only two realistic choices given the scale of the opposition: he can offer to drastically revise his plans or decide to withdraw them completely. Both options amount to a humiliating climbdown. His position as Fifa president is now looking increasingly precarious. Infantino faces election next March for another presidential term and was widely expected to be a shoo-in. It is now highly likely that a Europe-backed candidate will be encouraged to stand against him.
It’s about time: Infantino simply has to be stopped. His obsession with money and power has descended to a new low with this disgraceful scheme, treating the World Cup as nothing more than a money-making enterprise to be milked in every conceivable way. It is a grossly insulting approach to one of sport’s greatest competitions – a legacy built on the glorious achievements of generations of brilliant footballers, playing for their national teams, and cheered on by fans from every corner of the globe.
The World Cup is not the plaything of private speculators, to be sold off in secret to the highest bidder by the Fifa chief. Such a development would change football irrevocably, with decisions being made on the basis of what the ‘money men’ want rather than what’s best for the game. The fact that Infantino doesn’t even seem to understand this, let alone care, merely serves to confirm that he isn’t fit to be in charge. He must go, taking his daft and dangerous ideas with him, and Fifa must be reformed under new leadership.
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