UEFA calls off FIFA boycott plans to enable U20 Women to play World Cup, but still wants Infantino out

August 27 – European teams will compete in the upcoming U20 Women’s World Cup in Poland that kicks off September 5, and the U17 Men’s World Cup in Qatar in November.

With UEFA’s leaders and many of its federations currently gathered in Monaco for the Champions League league draw this evening, the European governing body said that it had received assurances from FIFA that president Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup will not be re-presented, either in their current form or in a reworked format.

UEFA have received a letter from FIFA that gives it enough wriggle room to withdraw the threat of a boycott of all FIFA competitions – a move that, if carried out, would have rendered FIFA’s ‘world’ competitions meaningless.

It is understood that Infantino’s letter does not commit to any statutory discussion over how to prevent any future proposed sale of FIFA’s income stream to private or institutional investors.

Practically what this means immediately is that Europe’s U20 women’s teams can continue their preparations for the finals next week and similarly hosts Poland.

UEFA executives have repeatedly said that they did not want to prevent opportunities for their age group players or to damage their member associations.

But nevertheless UEFA sources said it is not backing away from its call for Infantino to stand down, and its call for an independent investigation of the circumstances around the hatching of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan.

Infantino has so far refused to sanction an investigation which would inevitably focus on his own conduct and any agreements for his own participation in FFE.

The hope had been that the scandal would force Infantino to stand down, such is the scale of the breach of his executive remit. That hasn’t happened and instead Infantino has used FIFA’s staff to aggressively lobby and intimidate federations into supporting him. 30 days into the FIFA crisis Infantino has failed to call an emergency meeting of the FIFA Council which would have likely demanded a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Now the expectation is that a unity candidate will be put forward to run against Infantino for the presidency in March. The deadline for submitting a candidacy is November 18.

This morning UEFA is holding meetings of its executive committee as well as a meeting with its 55 member associations to update on the situation and plans to maintain pressure on Infantino.

What is certain is that Europe and completely lost any trust in its former general secretary’s leadership of FIFA and that it is still prepared to disengage at a later date if required.

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