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AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 1h ago
Attack on football' and 'repulsive': German officials on FIFA plans
Hans-Joachim Watzke, DFB vice president, reacts during the press conference introducing the new national team head coach. Florian Wiegand/dpa
German football officials on Wednesday joined sharp criticism on FIFA plans to sell stakes of their events led by the World Cup to private investors.
"Many in European football view FIFA’s plans as a direct attack on football. I share this view," Hans-Joachim Watzke, a German Football federation vice-president and vice-president of the UEFA executive committee, told Kicker sports magazine.
"A line has been crossed here. There is broad consensus on this amongst the member associations, as several discussions I have had over the past few days with (UEFA president) Aleksander Ceferin and other colleagues have shown me.
"At the World Cup, six European teams reached the quarter-finals and three the semi-finals. If European football stands united in opposing these plans, that carries a lot of weight."
FIFA announced on Tuesday it was aiming to launch a FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) subsidiary to merge the sale of its commercial rights with the operational delivery of its tournaments led by the World, which generates the most income for FIFA.
FIFA said that FFE would be open to private investors to acquire minority stakes and valued the entity at $20 billion.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has reportedly written to the 211 member federations and said they will receive $40 million each, with an initial payment of $20 million, if they endorse the FIFA plan by September 19. Those who don't sign up would be eligible for $2.7 million under the current global distribution scheme.
Bayern Munich board member Max Eberl named the FIFA plans "shameful" and said "I am ashamed that we in football talk about such ideas.
"As the fans have already said: Football doesn't belong to us. It is a game," Eberl said at the presentation of their new player Nathaniel Brown.
“For me, FIFA is there to support the game, to establish its structure and rules, and to organise World Cups. At the moment, I get the feeling that FIFA is only there to make a profit.
“Even I, who am truly at home in football, find this repulsive.”
Eberl said he welcomed UEFA's strong condemnation and also talked about rumours that UEFA could consider boycotting FIFA events.
"I’m not in favour of boycotts; in fact, I’m a firm believer in dialogue. But if it comes to that, I would actually be in favour of us, as Europe, standing firm and saying: ‘No, we won’t go along with that; that’s not our sport,’” Eberl said.
VfB Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness said the FIFA plans sound "catastrophic" and Borussia Dortmund CEO Carsten Cramer said that “I simply cannot understand why FIFA wants to take this step.
"I do not understand the reasoning behind these plans,” Cramer said during Dortmund's pre-season tour in Japan.
“Not only is my first impression, but also the initial feedback on this, not at all positive. Why does FIFA feel it needs to reinvent the wheel? In my view, this initiative is not a good idea at all.”
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