Uefa
maintains World Cup boycott still stands despite Fifa’s backing for Infantino
European
body says Fifa statement ‘changes nothing’
Fifpro
condemns ‘profound abuse of presidential power’
Nick Ames
and Matt Hughes
Thu 6 Aug
2026 15.45 BST
Uefa has
doubled down on its threat to boycott Fifa-run competitions and reiterated its
loss of confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency.
The
latest damning intervention from European football’s governing body came as
criticism of Infantino continued to rain in from several angles. The global
players’ union, Fifpro, condemned “a profound abuse of presidential power”
while the South American confederation, Conmebol, usually a strong Infantino
ally, was moved to chastise “repeated unilateral actions taken without
resorting to dialogue”.
It is
Uefa’s continued stance, though, that may damage Infantino most severely. In a
statement it said Fifa’s public backing of Infantino on Wednesday night
“changes nothing” and explained it was not convinced repeats of the past nine
days’ crisis will not occur.
Last week
Uefa’s 55 member associations agreed to boycott Fifa tournaments if Infantino
did not withdraw his privately funded Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme and,
although the plan was scrapped last Friday, it said the terms necessary to
avert the boycott have not been met.
“Uefa’s
associations were very clear about the conditions attached to their
non-participation in Fifa competitions,” it said. “First, the proposals to sell
off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and, secondly, assurances have
to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be
made again.
“These
conditions have not been met. In addition, Uefa made it abundantly clear in its
statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s
presidency. That position holds. Yesterday’s announcement that some people
employed by the Fifa president (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree
with him changes nothing.”
It
heightens the turmoil enveloping football’s governance. If no accord is reached
before the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which begins in Poland on 5 September,
that would be the first tournament subjected to a Uefa-led boycott.
Uefa
remains hopeful it can exploit divisions within Fifa’s leadership despite the
Infantino-led show of unity following Wednesday’s meeting of some of its
management board in Rabat.
There
were several notable absentees, however, and it is understood that Arsène
Wenger declined an invitation to travel to Morocco in his capacity as Fifa’s
chief of global development because of a desire to distance himself from
Infantino. The former Arsenal manager had launched a scathing attack on the
World Cup sell-off plans, saying it was “absolutely necessary and beyond
question” that they were scrapped.
In
contrast to Wenger, Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, who had
described the proposals as “the project of one person”, was not invited to the
summit in a development that will raise further questions over his future.
Additionally Jill Ellis, the chief football officer, and Sarai Bareman, the
chief women’s football officer, were not present in Rabat.
While
Fifa has sent apologies to the Fifa council and member associations for their
exclusion from the FFE process, it is believed that those sentiments failed to
sway a large percentage of council members.
A handful
of Uefa federations have withdrawn letters of support for Infantino’s
re-election for a fourth term, although the early rush to make such
declarations has slowed. The Football Association has now written to Fifa
formally retracting its backing.
Uefa’s
repeat of its boycott threat was followed by a scathing release from Fifpro.
Before the World Cup Fifpro signalled its intention to work with Fifa by
signing a memorandum of understanding but that has proved the briefest of
truces.
Alongside
the criticism, Fifpro wrote to Fifa making a series of demands, including
giving players voting rights on the Fifa council, which is supposed to be the
main decision-making body but has often been bypassed by Infantino.
“Fifa
Forward Enterprise is gone, but the abuse of power that produced it is not,”
Fifpro said. “Governance reforms, not a cover-up, are urgently needed. The
withdrawal of FFE was inevitable. But withdrawing the proposal does not erase
what it revealed.
“A plan
capable of permanently altering the ownership and governance of the Fifa World
Cup … was conceived in secrecy, negotiated behind closed doors and brought to
the brink of agreement before the Fifa council, the member associations,
players and football’s recognised stakeholders even knew it existed. That is
not merely a governance failure. It is a profound abuse of presidential power.”
Conmebol,
three of whose members are in line to host matches at the 2030 World Cup, had
waited more than a week to comment publicly. While its disapproval was clear it
stopped short of pushing for immediate change.
In a
statement it said the Conmebol council “unanimously expresses its concern
regarding the repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue
or to the institutional mechanisms established to address situations of this
nature”.
While
Uefa is leading efforts to unseat Infantino before Fifa’s election in March,
Conmebol pointed out the timeline for the process has already been set.
“Accordingly, Conmebol will not support any action or procedure that disregards
or departs from those institutional mechanisms,” it said.
Earlier
on Thursday the Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin
al-Hussein, said Fifa had paid bonuses owed from last December’s Arab Cup but
clarified he would still oppose Infantino.
The money
appears to have materialised after Prince Ali accused Fifa of “blackmail”,
saying the governing body had threatened to withhold funds if Jordan refused to
back Infantino’s re-election.
“Thank
you to the Fifa administration for suddenly this morning delivering what was
owed to our players and coaching staff, for the Jordan national team’s
accession to the final of the Fifa Arab Cup in Qatar last December,” he wrote.
“This was
funding that should have been received eight months ago … It is symptomatic of
those exact difficulties that we all face, and that are usually linked to the
Fifa presidential elections. And it does not change my clear position
concerning the leadership of Fifa: my FA and I will not endorse president
Infantino, nor will we vote for him.”
Meanwhile
on Thursday, the executive committee of the African confederation (Caf)
unanimously confirmed its support for Infantino. In a statement it said: “The
CAF executive committee unanimously endorses the joint update by the Fifa
president and secretary general on the FFE and will continue to focus on making
African Football amongst the best in the world and adhering to governance and
transparency global best practices.”
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