UEFA to boycott World Cup over FIFA investment plan

GENEVA — UEFA member federations agreed Thursday to boycott all FIFA competitions in protest of Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors.

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of the 55 members.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA president Infantino’s offer of $20 million to each of FIFA's 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

Infantino’s secret proposal was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in a new $20 billion subsidiary 20% owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”

Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to “turbocharge” funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.

Officials from about 40 UEFA members spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion-dollar reserves to fund extra development programs.

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is in Europe — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5.