UEFA says will boycott World Cup if FIFA pushes private investor proposal

PARIS, France: European football’s governing body UEFA said Thursday it would boycott the World Cup should FIFA press ahead with its private investor plan.
“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,” UEFA said in a statement.
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product... No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors.

The World Cup is not for sale.”
FIFA, football’s world governing body, on Tuesday, announced plans to create a commercial subsidiary to run its biggest events, such as the World Cup and Club World Cup.
Under the proposal, private investors would be allowed to acquire stakes in the company but would remain minority shareholders, FIFA said. The governing body hopes to raise up to $4.2 billion based on a valuation of $20 billion for the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative.
If approved, the project could provide each of FIFA’s 211 member associations with a one-off payment of $20 million in early 2027 and increase their funding allocation for the 2027-2030 cycle from $8 million to $20 million.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Wednesday described the initiative as a “golden opportunity to turbocharge the development of the game globally.”
But UEFA, whose president Aleksander Ceferin boycotted the World Cup final to show unhappiness with FIFA, argued that “this model has no place in world football.”
“Football’s future cannot be dictated by the expectations of those whose first duty is to maximize financial return.