FIFA President Gianni Infantino: UEFA has welcomed FIFA's decision to abandon its controversial proposal to sell a stake in the commercial rights of its competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, calling the reversal "a victory for the whole game" while urging world football's governing body to rebuild trust through greater transparency and accountability.
In a strongly worded statement issued after FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed the withdrawal of the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project, UEFA said the plan had been unanimously rejected by its member associations and opposed by federations and confederations worldwide.
"UEFA welcomes FIFA's decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions, including the World Cup, into private hands," the continental governing body said.
It also thanked fans, clubs, leagues, players, national associations and confederations, as well as political leaders and commentators, for opposing the proposal.
"Football is not for sale," UEFA said, describing the withdrawal as a victory for the sport.
Despite welcoming FIFA's U-turn, UEFA launched a fresh attack on the process behind the proposal, criticising what it called "secret schemes" developed without adequate consultation.
"We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account," UEFA said.
The European body added that it would work with its member associations and other continental confederations in the coming weeks to review how the proposal emerged and ensure a similar situation does not arise again.
"The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family," the statement added.
UEFA also accused Infantino of failing to deliver on promises of transparency made when he was elected FIFA president in 2016. It argued that with FIFA holding reserves of more than five billion US dollars, there was no need to seek outside investment to increase development funding.
Instead, UEFA proposed expanding support through the existing FIFA Forward programme by using FIFA's financial reserves to strengthen grassroots football and member associations across all 211 federations.
"We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in FIFA's bank account to deliver the kick start that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of FIFA. But we don't need to sell off the family silver to pay for it," UEFA said.
Instead, UEFA proposed expanding support through the existing FIFA Forward programme by using FIFA's financial reserves to strengthen grassroots football and member associations across all 211 federations.
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FIFA said the project was intended to generate additional revenue for member associations, but Infantino acknowledged that the proposal had created divisions within world football and decided to withdraw it in the interest of unity.