Uefa has declared it has lost confidence in the Fifa leadership as president Gianni Infantino faces open revolt over his controversial scheme to sell stakes in the World Cup.
Uefa's announcement on Saturday followed a dramatic climbdown by Fifa late on Friday night, after a backlash from multiple football federations, including Uefa, which voted to boycott Fifa tournaments in protest. The English FA released a statement later on Saturday that also questioned Fifa's leadership, writing: "We fully support Uefa's position. It is time for a full and robust review of FIFA's leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long-term stewardship of football at its heart."
Infantino's long-term adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a key figure within Fifa, chose to quit in protest over the initial proposals, while Fifa's chief operating officer said that Infantino "deceived" staff over his plans. The proposal was unanimously rejected by Uefa's national associations and by many other federations and confederations of all sizes around the world.
Uefa quoted a speech Infantino made when he came to power a decade ago in a lengthy statement outlining its position. The statement "welcomed" the decision to cancel the scheme, adding: "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 president Aleksander Ceferin is in direct opposition to Infantino. The statement continued: "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."
Uefa's statement also criticized Infantino's failure to use associations' money for the benefit of the game. "With reserves standing at over $5bn, he has also failed to use associations' money for the benefit of the game," it said. The UK's new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was among those to condemn the plans, saying Infantino was the "wrong man" to lead football's governing body.
The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family, Uefa said. The governing body will now 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.
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 kickstart that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of Fifa," Uefa's statement said. "But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it."
The proposal has gone, but the task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.
Source: Yahoo Sports