The confrontation between European football’s governing body UEFA and FIFA President Gianni Infantino has intensified sharply since UEFA’s 55 member associations unanimously voted on Thursday July 30 to boycott all FIFA competitions, including future World Cups, unless a controversial plan to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors was abandoned.
On Friday, Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s senior adviser and a former US Soccer Federation president who also represented FIFA on the White House World Cup task force, resigned with immediate effect.
Cordeiro stated he had “no involvement” in the proposal and opposed it “unequivocally,” describing it as “a bad deal for FIFA’s Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.”
He questioned the need to raise roughly $4.2 billion by selling a minority stake in a new $20 billion entity (FIFA Forward Enterprise) when FIFA holds substantial reserves and no debt, calling it “mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification.”
FIFA initially signalled it would continue consultations. By late Friday into early Saturday, however, the organisation abandoned the plan amid mounting opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF, the Asian Football Confederation, and internal dissent.
FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour stated that senior staff had been “deceived.”
On Saturday, UEFA issued a blistering statement welcoming the withdrawal but declaring that “the current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
It accused Infantino of a “shabby, back room, opaque deal” that breached his 2016 promises of transparency, and said: “We 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. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.”
UEFA added that “no option should be off the table” in a forthcoming review with associations and other confederations.
UEFA welcomes FIFA’s withdrawal of plans to sell a stake in the World Cup
— UEFA (@UEFA) August 1, 2026
National associations have echoed the loss of trust.
The Dutch FA (KNVB) described a “fundamental breach of trust” and said it no longer had confidence in Infantino’s leadership. German FA chief Bernd Neuendorf criticised unilateral action without transparency. Spanish La Liga president Javier Tebas called for Infantino’s resignation, arguing the episode exposed a governance model that concentrates power and marginalises stakeholders.
UEFA has gone further still. In a formal letter sent to Infantino (and copied to figures including Joshua Kushner of the potential lead investor group Thrive Eternal, along with other parties), the European body gave notice that it is “actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints” arising from the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan.
It demanded the immediate preservation of all related documents and electronically stored information, listing key individuals including Infantino, secretary general Mattias Grafström, Arsène Wenger, and Kevin Lamour, and set a five-business-day deadline for acknowledgment.
Reports indicate UEFA is preparing options that could include triggering an emergency FIFA Congress for a no-confidence vote (possible with the support of 43 of FIFA’s 211 member associations) or pushing for Infantino’s resignation ahead of the next presidential election.
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has similarly called for a full review of leadership.
On Monday, Wales has become the first football association to officially withdraw support for Gianni Infantino’s re-election as FIFA president.
“The recent failures in good governance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communications and sound judgement have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football,” it told Sky News.
Infantino has said earlier, after he announced the withdrawal of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal “It has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.”
He said FIFA’s purpose has always been to unite and improve. “Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support.”
The current crisis follows a series of earlier controversies that had already strained relations between UEFA and Infantino.
During the 2026 World Cup, FIFA suspended the automatic one-match ban on United States striker Folarin Balogun after he received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, allowing him to play in the last-16 match against Belgium.
The decision came after US President Donald Trump personally called Infantino to request a review. UEFA condemned the move as “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable,” stating that it “crossed a red line,” undermined the certainty of the rules, and damaged the integrity and credibility of the competition.
Critics also pointed to Infantino’s unusually close public relationship with Trump, including the awarding of a specially created FIFA Peace Prize, and other decisions such as the introduction of hydration breaks and high ticket pricing, which many European associations viewed as further evidence of prioritising commercial and political considerations over sporting integrity.
🚨 BREAKING: After the World Cup had started, Gianni Infantino had only informed a small clique of confidants about his scheme.
He said “after 2031 (the end of his Presidency), we can make a SERIOUS amount of money here”.
When asked if hus $6 MILLION salary was enough, he… pic.twitter.com/IpD9ZVA0k5
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) August 3, 2026
