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See the full story · 1 sourcesFIFA President Gianni Infantino's plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup have proven incredibly divisive -Credit:Marc Atkins, Getty Images
FIFA have released a new defiant statement insisting "nobody is selling" soccer after UEFA threatened to boycott the World Cup and CONCACAF flat-out rejected their plans.
Despite the backlash over its decision to launch a consultation on selling stakes in a World Cup commercial entity to private investors, FIFA is not pulling the plan.
Although the governing body has asserted they are not "selling" soccer in their latest statement, the consultation period will proceed, as per The Mirror .
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CONCACAF joins UEFA in rejecting Gianni Infantino's controversial FIFA World Cup stake sale
-Credit:Anadolu, Anadolu via Getty Images
When plans to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) first surfaced in media reports in The Times and the Financial Times on Tuesday, UEFA reacted furiously.
UEFA's 55 member associations said they would boycott the World Cup and not participate in any FIFA tournament until the plan was withdrawn.
In a statement released on Friday, FIFA said: "We have heard the feedback provided by the respective confederations in relation to the proposed establishment of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) and would like to address the issues that have surfaced since the initial media reporting on Tuesday.
"We respect the feedback and concern aired in public and reaffirm our commitment to an open and democratic consultation."
"Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA has the ability to express its vote based on facts."
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The statement continued: "FFE has been proposed solely to ensure that all FIFA Member Associations (MAs) have the opportunity to take meaningful ownership of the commercial opportunity of football in their respective countries, and that this does not come at the cost of either the spirit or the governance of FIFA or football itself. Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain."
CONCACAF, the confederation representing 41 nations from North and Central America, along with the Caribbean, also voiced its opposition to FIFA's proposal , stating it "rejected the proposal."
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has openly supported the initiative, with an investor consortium led by Thrive Eternal, established by Joshua Kushner – the brother of United States President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner – poised to acquire a minority stake in the new enterprise.
Nevertheless, as European teams threaten to pull out of tournaments, the pledges of substantial returns to national associations should FFE proceed are unlikely to materialize.
European and world leagues are also against the proposals – concerned that commercial priorities will push FIFA to stage larger and more frequent tournaments in the future, encroaching even further into domestic calendars.
Aleksander Čeferin's UEFA has confirmed its member nations will boycott FIFA competitions as a result of Infantino's plans -Credit:Nicolò Campo, LightRocket via Getty Images
UEFA's opposition to the plan, in its words, is "unanimous and unequivocal." European soccer's governing body declared: "No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership."
FIFA's statement added that "each MA should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future".
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