Tensions between football authorities reached an unprecedented boiling point as European national teams threatened a complete World Cup boycott if Gianni Infantino pushes ahead with plans to privatize the tournament.
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Subscribe Sekarang →Reports revealed that the embattled FIFA president plans to establish an affiliate company named FIFA Forward Enterprise to manage flagship tournaments before selling a majority stake to private investors, a proposal UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin condemned as crossing every boundary.
UEFA held an emergency meeting with all fifty-five member associations resulting in a historic resolution stating that no European national team will participate in any FIFA tournament while the proposals stand, demanding complete cancellation and binding guarantees against private ownership.
A spokesperson for The Football Association stated in The Sun that they stand firmly united with European colleagues, declaring "We oppose FIFA's plans and the football World Cup belongs to football and always will be."
This escalation plunges the upcoming edition of the world's biggest sporting event into an existential crisis, as the tournament could theoretically proceed without football powerhouses like England, France, and Spain if the boycott holds.
FIFA claims it only requires a majority approval from its two hundred eleven member associations to pass the project without European backing, though widespread criticism continues to mount.
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wrote on X that "Football does not belong to investors, it belongs to the supporters," emphasizing that the World Cup is a supreme sporting competition that has never belonged to anyone to sell.