After UEFA threatened Thursday to boycott the World Cup over FIFA’s private equity proposal, FIFA appears ready to stand and fight.
In a statement released late Thursday night — and early Friday morning in Europe — FIFA blamed the blowback over its plan to allow private investment into the World Cup on “erroneous reporting in the media” that disrupted its “planned consultation process” for member associations.
FIFA claims it would own and control FIFA Forward Enterprise, the company that would be spun off to private equity, and that each of its member associations would receive $20 million of development funding over the next four years should the proposal pass. At no point did the statement indicate that FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose own position has been speculated to be at risk, might back down from the idea.
“Nobody is selling football,” the statement read in part. “This is not something FIFA would ever entertain.”
CONCACAF and the AFC, organizations representing North and Central American football associations and Asian football associations, respectively, both released statements indicating opposition to the plan.
While those stopped short of threatening boycotts, UEFA — the 55 European associations — did threaten to withhold its teams from competition.
Should things get that far, the most immediate effects would be felt in the women’s game.
The Women’s World Cup next summer in Brazil is the next senior FIFA competition, with three of the top four sides in FIFA’s rankings — England, Germany and defending champion Spain — based in Europe.
On the men’s side, the absence of countries like current champion Spain, France and England, as well as the superstars who play for them, would dent both the sporting and commercial legitimacy of a World Cup.
Not to mention that Spain and Portugal are two of the three primary hosts for the 2030 World Cup, along with Morocco.
More immediately pressing, though certainly not as big a competition, is that the women’s under-20 World Cup is set to begin in Poland on Sept. 5. If the issue remains unresolved, Poland — as a UEFA member — would certainly be unable to host, potentially resulting in the tournament’s cancellation.
For those reasons, UEFA’s stance earlier Thursday appeared to kill FIFA’s proposal. Forging ahead anyway suggests Infantino believes the threat is hollow and cracks exist in the opposition coalition.
“No single entity can claim to represent all 211 [member associations] around the world,” FIFA’s statement said. “Each MA should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future.”
This is now a matter of brinkmanship.
