UEFA and its 55 member associations stand as one. We unanimously and unequivocally reject FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors.
The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product. It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters across every continent. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale.
It is both irresponsible and indefensible that a proposal of such significance for football was conceived in secret and brought to the brink of approval without any meaningful consultation with those entrusted with stewarding the game. This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football.
National associations around the world are now presented with an ultimatum: accept the irreversible capture of football’s greatest competitions or bear the consequences. This is not a “democratic decision”, but governance by intimidation – an act of coercion unworthy of an institution entrusted with the stewardship of the global game.
Europe’s position is clear. We will never lend this model our legitimacy. No one has the moral authority to sell what they merely hold in trust for the next generation.
As a result of today’s discussion, 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.
The proposal is absolutely absurd. FIFA is astonishingly corrupt, but this is hitting new heights of corruption. UEFA and the other Football Associations are correct to reject it completely.
In other international football news, the Milan family is in mourning. Riposa in pace.
The former Milan and Italy defender Franco Baresi, one of the most recognisable players of the golden era of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 66. “The entire history of AC Milan is in tears following the passing of Franco Baresi,” his former club said on Friday. “His example and integrity will be forever etched into the club’s DNA.”