Power struggle with Fifa: UEFA withdraws World Cup boycott

In the power struggle over the organization of world football, Europe’s Football Union (Uefa) is probably withdrawing its announced boycott of all FIFA tournaments, including the men’s World Cup. Various media reported on such plans on the sidelines of the draw for the European Cup competitions in Monaco on Wednesday, and this intention was also confirmed to the SZ by UEFA circles. There was initially no official statement from the association. The issue can only be formally discussed and decided on Thursday at a new meeting of all 55 European national associations and the UEFA Executive Committee.

The background to this step is obviously that Uefa sees the conditions that it has set for the world football association (Fifa) and its president Gianni Infantino as fulfilled. After Infantino’s investor plans became known, in which the World Cup rights were to be outsourced to a new subsidiary (FFE) and parts of this company were to be acquired by investors close to US President Donald Trump, Uefa and all of its members decided to boycott the World Cup and at the same time outlined a scenario for a possible end. To do this, it must be ensured that “such attempts to distort football in this way will never be made again,” it was said at the beginning of August.

In a first step, Infantino’s Fifa had cleared the concrete FFE project, but had not given a binding promise that such privatization ideas would never come up again. According to SZ information, UEFA has now received a letter from FIFA Secretary General and Infantino confidant Mattias Grafström, which UEFA understands as such a commitment.

This means that the U20 Women’s World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Poland from September 5th and would be the first tournament to be affected by a UEFA boycott, should take place as planned. The Polish association announced during the week that preparations were going according to plan and that there was “no information about a possible withdrawal of one of the participating teams from the tournament.”

Regardless of whether the World Cup boycott ends, the Europeans continue to push for Infantino to say goodbye

The clear World Cup boycott threat from UEFA and its associations was decisive in the formation of a broad anti-Infantino alliance, which includes not only the Europeans but also the Asian and North/Central American associations. It was clear to everyone involved that a World Cup without European nations would have been pointless in terms of sport and economically unproductive.

Regardless of the end of the World Cup boycott, the Europeans and their allies continue to push for Gianni Infantino to leave the FIFA leadership. There are two options for the seriously ailing Fifa boss, said Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin at the beginning of the week in the British podcast “The Rest is Politics”. Infantino must recognize “that he does not have the necessary support” – and therefore essentially resign. If he does run for re-election at the congress in March 2027, there will probably be an opposing candidate who would also have a good chance given the Eurasian-North American alliance.

Ceferin said he didn’t yet know who a possible opponent would be, but the Slovenian ruled out his own candidacy for the post at the top of FIFA. He also doubted that Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi, powerful club boss of Paris Saint-Germain, would take part. One option could be that Victor Montagliani of Canada, head of the Confederations of North, Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), could enter the race as a challenger to unseat Infantino until the November 18 deadline for nominations.

However, a completely different solution is being worked on behind the scenes: a fundamental reform of the FIFA statues, including a rotation model in which there would no longer be a permanent FIFA president, but the six continental heads would take turns. That would not only prevent anyone from amassing the power that Infantino did. At the same time, it would further stabilize the anti-Infantino alliance because some continental leaders would be happy to be FIFA president themselves, at least for a short time.

In addition, Gianni Infantino also threatens trouble on another flank in this power struggle. The FFE plans have left memorable traces that UEFA is following up on. Two weeks ago, she sent warning letters to Infantino’s Fifa and other parties such as the major bank JP Morgan and Thrive Holding, which was intended as an anchor investor, not to destroy materials and documents for communication surrounding the secret project. Anyone who does this now could be liable to prosecution. There could soon be concrete complaints.