Can you imagine an alternative World Cup without Argentina or Brazil? Or the best African nations such as Ivory Coast or Senegal? Well, it could be a possibility amid the backlash to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The Swiss sportocrat has been in hot water ever since his secret plan to sell off a stake in the men’s FIFA World Cup was rumbled by The Times, with much of the football world denouncing the scheme and his presidency.
UEFA have led the opposition to Infantino, promising to boycott FIFA events unless he is removed from his position.
That position remains unshaken after Infantino received the backing of FIFA’s management board, despite receiving criticism from high-level officials from within the governing body itself, following a crisis meeting in Rabat, Morocco last week.
UEFA reiterated that the conditions for ending their boycott had not been met and that it has “lost confidence” in Infantino. No other confederation had gone as far as the European governing body in their response, but now AFC and CONCACAF have joined forces with them to put out a scathing statement.
The trio of confederations published an ‘open letter to the football family’ on Monday, pushing for Infantino to resign and calling for “leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it”.
“Leadership in football is not a possession,” the letter reads. “It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it. When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”
Breakaway World Cup on the cards? FIFA slammed by UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF
Multiple reports claim that early discussions have taken place about organising alternative competitions between themselves, raising the possibility of a breakaway World Cup featuring nations from Asia, Europe and North America, but not South America or Africa, where Infantino retains a lot of support.
The letter, which is signed by Aleksander Ceferin, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Victor Montagliani, the presidents of UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF respectively, strongly criticises FIFA’s response to the scandal.
“It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” the letter says. “It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment – not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.”
FIFA has promised to deliver a full report on the events concerning the ‘FIFA Forward Enterprise’ to the FIFA Council, but the three confederations have demanded an independent review into the controversy.
“There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness … Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now, with leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it,” the letter concludes.
