{"id":612402,"date":"2026-07-30T21:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612402\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:53:09","slug":"uefa-to-boycott-world-cup-if-fifa-plans-go-through-to-sell-stakes-to-private-investors-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612402\/","title":{"rendered":"Uefa to boycott World Cup if Fifa plans go through to sell stakes to private investors \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

European countries have agreed to boycott all Fifa<\/a> competitions if Gianni Infantino<\/a> pushes forward with his proposals to sell chunks of the World Cup<\/a> to US-based private investment.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinary development all 55 Uefa members resolved not to participate in future World Cups or other Fifa-run events, saying in a statement that they \u201cunanimously and unequivocally reject\u201d the proposals. An emergency meeting that lasted just short of two hours ended with a united front despite earlier fears that smaller countries, attracted by the money on offer through Infantino\u2019s scheme, would be swayed in favour.<\/p>\n

European FAs are expected to write to Fifa this week with a formal notification of their threat to boycott future tournaments unless the planned World Cup sell-off is withdrawn.<\/p>\n

The FAI released a brief statement on Thursday night following the earlier announcement.<\/p>\n

It read: \u201cThe Football Association of Ireland supports UefaA along with all member associations in rejecting Fifa\u2019s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the Fifa World Cup and other Fifa competitions to private investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Association believes that decisions of this significance must be founded on strong governance, transparency and meaningful consultation. In solidarity with Uefa\u2019s position, Ireland\u2019s national teams will not participate in Fifa competitions while these proposals remain under consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

It means Infantino faces an uphill battle to push his plan forward. Countries had been given until September 19th to sign up but there will now be significant pressure to drastically revise his scheme or withdraw it completely. While the majority of European FAs had submitted letters of support in favour of his re-election next March, such a decisive line in the sand from Uefa weakens his position dramatically.<\/p>\n

Uefa\u2019s statement confirmed the decision. \u201cAs a result of today\u2019s discussion, 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,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s meeting was introduced by the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, with executive committee members and Uefa\u2019s Fifa council representatives also addressing delegates. Those early speeches are understood to have set the tone, with around 20 further FA heads taking the floor and multiple sources describing an atmosphere of \u201cunity\u201d. <\/p>\n

Along the lines spelt out by Uefa, at senior level the proposed boycott would begin with next year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup, while the first age-group Fifa tournament to be boycotted is likely to be the Under-20 Women\u2019s World Cup. It is due to take place in Poland from September 5th with six of the 24 competitors due to represent Uefa countries.<\/p>\n

The European governing body invited other confederations to follow their lead. Uefa are understood to be confident that a number of Asian countries, in particular, are similarly minded. Infantino\u2019s strongholds traditionally lie outside Europe and a collapse in support elsewhere could have severe consequences for the Fifa president.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational associations around the world are now presented with an ultimatum: accept the irreversible capture of football\u2019s greatest competitions or bear the consequences,\u201d Uefa said. \u201cThis is not a \u2018democratic decision\u2019, but governance by intimidation \u2013 an act of coercion unworthy of an institution entrusted with the stewardship of the global game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources within European football believe Uefa\u2019s decision increases the chances of a Europe-backed candidate running against Infantino in next year\u2019s Fifa election, which he had been expected to sail through without opposition. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Concacaf and \u200cits 41 member associations rejected the proposal during \u200ba meeting on Thursday but stopped short of following Uefa\u2019s \u200bplan to boycott the global showcase.<\/p>\n

The regional bloc for North \u200cAmerica, \u200cCentral \u200bAmerica and the Caribbean said its membership expressed \u201cdeep \u200bconcerns\u201d about the \u200black of due process \u200csurrounding the proposal, \u200ba short deadline and the absence of any \u200breview or approval by relevant Fifa governance bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discussion reinforced the need for greater transparency and proper governance,\u201d \u200cConcacaf said in a press release. \u201cFor these reasons, Concacaf and \u200cits 41 Member Associations have: Rejected \u200bthe proposal.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European countries have agreed to boycott all Fifa competitions if Gianni Infantino pushes forward with his proposals to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,34476,74963,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,19413,35350],"class_list":["post-612402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fifa","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-uefa","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}