Euro nations vow FIFA World Cup boycott CONCACAF lashes out as opposition spreads against Infantino’s private equity plan

GENEVA, Switzerland:

European nations agreed on Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in soccer’s biggest tournament to private equity investors.

North American soccer body, Concacaf, which includes Jamaica, rejected his plan later the same day.

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer 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 on 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 $20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

CONCACAF’S DEEP CONCERNS

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”.

Concacaf also questioned the need for outside investment “following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history”.

Infantino’s secret project was revealed on Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in a new $20-billion subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), 20 per cent 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 on 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 $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million.

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

‘FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP’

“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.

INFANTINO’S PRESIDENCY AT RISK?

Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rise among soccer stakeholders, including three of the six continental bodies.

FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through to 2031, despite a furore over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

Soccer officials have said privately that Infantino has eyed a lucrative commissioner-like role at the FFE spin-off beyond 2031.