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UEFA has renewed its threat to boycott future FIFA competitions, insisting that Gianni Infantino’s apology over his abandoned plan to sell stakes in major football competitions has done nothing to restore confidence in his leadership.
The development followed a crisis meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, where senior FIFA officials reaffirmed their “full support” for Infantino despite mounting opposition to his FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal.
UEFA said its member associations had set clear conditions for ending the boycott threat, including the complete withdrawal of the proposal and assurances that a similar attempt would not be made again.
“First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again,” a UEFA spokesperson told The Athletic.
According to UEFA, neither condition has been satisfied, despite FIFA abandoning the plan. The European governing body also maintained its position that it has “lost confidence” in Infantino’s presidency.
“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing,” UEFA said.
The dispute centres on Infantino’s proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would have allowed private investors to acquire stakes in FIFA’s commercial and event operations, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cup.
The proposal triggered opposition from several football bodies, with UEFA threatening to withdraw its member associations from FIFA competitions unless the plan was scrapped. FIFA eventually abandoned the proposal last week.
However, UEFA is no longer the only major football body expressing concern. South American football governing body Conmebol said it was concerned about what it described as “repeated unilateral actions” taken without sufficient dialogue or use of established institutional mechanisms.
Conmebol called for greater respect for football’s governance structures and urged unity within the football community ahead of the FIFA presidential election, scheduled for March 2027.
While opposition has grown, Infantino continues to retain significant support. The Confederation of African Football unanimously reaffirmed its backing for the FIFA president on Thursday and said it remained committed to working with the governing body.
Infantino has previously claimed to have secured more than 200 letters of support from FIFA’s 211 member associations, although that backing has weakened, with England, Wales and Serbia among the associations that have withdrawn their support.
The global players’ union, FIFPro, has also criticised the abandoned proposal, describing it as “a profound abuse of presidential power” and arguing that withdrawing the plan alone was not enough to restore confidence in FIFA’s leadership.
The widening divisions have left Infantino facing the most serious challenge of his presidency, with UEFA maintaining its boycott threat and several influential football organisations demanding stronger safeguards around FIFA’s governance.
