UEFA 'Loses Confidence' in Infantino's FIFA Leadership
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- UEFA declared it has "lost confidence" in Gianni Infantino's FIFA leadership, releasing a ferocious statement that quoted his own 2016 transparency promises back at him and accused him of running "shabby, back room, opaque" deals.
- FIFA scrapped its proposal on Saturday to create a commercial subsidiary — FIFA Forward Enterprise — that would have sold minority stakes to outside investors, with chief operating officer Kevin Lamour saying the administration had been "deceived" about the project.
- Concacaf members "rejected" the proposal while the Asian Football Confederation stood in "solidarity" with UEFA, and the Football Association called for "a full and robust review of Fifa's leadership and governance."
- Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino's senior adviser on global strategy and governance, resigned over the plan, calling it "a bad deal for football" that would "mortgage football's future."
- Thrive Eternal, the American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, was expected to lead the investor group under a 25-page JP Morgan document projecting 24m euros (£20.5m) per member association in the 2035-2039 cycle.
- Infantino now faces re-election for a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in March, with UEFA saying the task of "rebuilding trust" in FIFA's leadership "has only just begun."
Why it matters: Three of FIFA's major confederations — UEFA, the AFC, and Concacaf — have publicly turned on Infantino over the scrapped FFE proposal, and his own COO admitted the administration was "deceived," leaving his March re-election bid without the broad consensus he previously enjoyed.
