DFB Vice President Oke Göttlich has praised UEFA’s decisive resistance to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s investor plans. At the same time, the president of the second division soccer team FC St. Pauli is hoping for a general structural change in the associations. “The football associations – regardless of whether FIFA or UEFA, but also the national associations, must finally strive for good governance structures so that such growth can be contained in the future,” said Göttlich to NDR.
FIFA had announced that it wanted to bring in billions from the potential sale of part of its commercial rights, for example to the World Cup. To implement this, FIFA wants to establish the subsidiary FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). In addition to UEFA, which is even threatening a World Cup boycott, Concacaf, which is responsible for North and Central America and the Caribbean, and the Asian football umbrella organization AFC had also heavily criticized Infantino’s plans.
Göttlich would have liked such resistance before the XXL World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. “The signal that is being set here is right and important and perhaps should have been set months ago,” said Göttlich. “I would like this to also happen before major events when it comes to human rights issues. And not just when it comes to the commercial excesses of FIFA and its all-powerful President Gianni Infantino.”