'Shabby and opaque!' - UEFA declares loss of confidence in Gianni Infantino after FIFA backs down on £15bn World Cup sell-off plot

The relationship between football’s most powerful governing bodies has reached a new low following the fallout from FIFA's attempt to sell a 20 per cent stake in its commercial assets. In a remarkably blunt statement, UEFA welcomed FIFA’s decision to withdraw the proposal but made it clear that the damage to Infantino’s reputation is permanent.

UEFA stated: 'UEFA welcomes FIFA’s decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions - including the World Cup - into private hands. 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.'

The core of UEFA’s anger stems from the perceived betrayal of the promises Infantino made when he was elected to lead world football in 2016. At the time, he championed a new era of openness following the corruption scandals of the Sepp Blatter years.

The scathing statement continued: 'It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again. That review should be thorough and fundamental, with no option off the table, as the current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.'

The collapse of the 'FIFA Forward Enterprise' project followed a united front from UEFA, CONCACAF, and the AFC. These confederations were prepared to stage a boycott of future World Cups if the plan to sell off the 'family silver' to private investors had proceeded.

'The shabby, backroom, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through was anything but transparent,' the UEFA statement added. 'We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in FIFA’s bank account to deliver the kickstart that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of FIFA. But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it. This is a victory for the whole game, but it must not be the end of the story - the proposal has gone, yet the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun.'

Faced with a total rebellion from the game's most influential stakeholders, Infantino was forced to concede that the commercial project was no longer viable. The FIFA president admitted that the proposal had become a source of conflict rather than a tool for progress, abandoning plans to create 'FIFA Forward Enterprise' - a subsidiary designed to manage the World Cup's lucrative commercial assets. Football's governing body had valued the entity at £15bn and was seeking to sell a 20 per cent stake for £3.1bn to private investors.

Explaining the climbdown, Infantino said: 'Having listened carefully to all the views, 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. Our purpose has always been - and will always be - to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.'