{"id":615985,"date":"2026-08-02T01:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/615985\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T01:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:50:25","slug":"gianni-infantino-has-lost-uefas-confidence-after-fifa-chief-scraps-world-cup-sell-off-plan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/615985\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino \u2018has lost Uefa\u2019s confidence\u2019 after Fifa chief scraps World Cup sell-off plan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uefa<\/a> has warned Gianni Infantino<\/a> that his style of leadership cannot continue in demanding a thorough and fundamental review of Fifa<\/a>\u2019s governance.<\/p>\n

In a strongly-worded statement that referred to \u201csecret schemes\u201d, \u201cshabby backroom deals\u201d and \u201cfaceless individuals\u201d, Uefa\u2019s leadership made clear it wants change at the top of Fifa, despite the world governing body\u2019s overnight U-turn in abandoning Infantino\u2019s plan<\/a> to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions.<\/p>\n

While stopping short of calling for Infantino to resign, Uefa\u2019s leadership is understood to be determined that he should not be permitted to survive a crisis of his own making, a view that is shared by many of the biggest football governing bodies across the world.<\/p>\n

Leading European officials are already understood to have begun the process of identifying a candidate to stand against Infantino in next year\u2019s Fifa presidential election, which will continue over the next few days.<\/p>\n

Uefa\u2019s statement made clear that under the leadership of president Aleksander Ceferin, who succeeded in getting all 55 member associations to support a World Cup boycott last Thursday, it will continue to push for change.<\/p>\n

\n

UEFA welcomes FIFA\u2019s withdrawal of plans to sell a stake in the World Cup<\/p>\n

\u2014 UEFA (@UEFA) August 1, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe must identify those responsible and hold them to account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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. That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table. The current Fifa leadership has not only lost Uefa\u2019s confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uefa went on to criticise Infantino directly, saying he has failed to deliver on pledges he made to be transparent and accountable before he was first elected president in 2016.<\/p>\n

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was among the national associations which backed Uefa<\/a> \u201cin rejecting Fifa\u2019s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the Fifa World Cup and other Fifa competitions to private investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement from the FAI on Thursday added: \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

Infantino had been expected to be re-elected unopposed for a third full term at next March\u2019s Fifa Congress in Rabat, but while he is determined to stay on the 56-year-old could now face a challenger.<\/p>\n

While he has already secured more than 200 letters of support from member associations endorsing his re-election campaign, they can be withdrawn. The deadline by which candidates must announce their intention to stand is November 18th. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uefa has warned Gianni Infantino that his style of leadership cannot continue in demanding a thorough and fundamental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615986,"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-615985","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":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117023409634406299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615985","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=615985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}