UEFA declares no confidence in Infantino, vows accountability for failed World Cup equity plan

In this file photo, FIFA President Gianni Infantino gestures as he meets the media at the FIFA World Cup closing press conference in Doha, Qatar. (AP)

GENEVA, Aug 1 (AP): Successfully stopping Gianni Infantino’s FIFA plan to sell World Cup profits to private investors was the first half of a high-stakes game in global soccer politics.

The second half kicked off Saturday with what seemed a clear aim of ending Infantino’s decade-long presidency.

"No option should be off the table,” said European soccer body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.

"The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”

Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.

Infantino was forced to scrap the plan early Saturday after his senior adviser, who sat on a White House panel, resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

"Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a statement on Friday. "Our purpose has always been - and will always be - to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, issued its blistering statement hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.

"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," UEFA said. "We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.

"It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”

Norwegian soccer federation president Lise Klaveness, an elected member of the UEFA executive committee, said steps must be taken to protect the integrity of the sport.

"The entire framework of international football cooperation was unnecessarily put at risk in pursuit of individual interests rather than the best interests of the game,” Klaveness said Saturday. ”This has been visible to many for a long time, including those of us elected to positions intended to safeguard checks and balances and provide ongoing oversight. We have to recognize that these mechanisms have not worked well enough.”

The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, said: "The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game."

Infantino's audacious bid fell apart after UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

There was also an internal revolt.

Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour stated to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.