UEFA have declared they no longer trust Gianni Infantino after the FIFA president's controversial plan to sell stakes in his organisation's competitions, the World Cup among them, fell apart.
The pressure on Infantino is building. His scheme collapsed on Friday evening, drawing fierce criticism, and it had aimed to sell a 3.1 billion pound stake in the most valuable tournament in world football to private investors led by Josh Kushner, a man with an extended family link to US President Donald Trump.
European football's governing body spearheaded the resistance to the plan, announcing in a lengthy statement on Saturday morning that they had lost confidence in his leadership.
UEFA said in the statement: "UEFA welcomes FIFA's decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions, including the World Cup, to private parties."
UEFA added: "This proposal was unanimously rejected by UEFA's member national associations, and by many other national and continental associations of various sizes around the world, whose mission is to protect football."
UEFA continued: "UEFA thanks all the fans, associations, clubs, players, individuals and national and continental federations that opposed this plan, along with the many prime ministers, heads of state and commentators who proved to the FIFA president that football is not for sale."
UEFA explained: "We cannot continue in this manner with secret schemes on rapid timelines, orchestrated by unknown individuals and of dubious benefit to the game, and we must identify those responsible and hold them to account."
The statement went on: "It is right that UEFA, in the coming days and weeks, works with its member associations and in close cooperation with the other continental confederations to reflect on how this happened, and to put in place a plan to ensure it does not happen again, as this review must be comprehensive and substantive, and no option should be ruled out. FIFA's current leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence, but has also lost the confidence of many other members of the football family."
It added: "When Infantino sought the confidence and votes of FIFA's member associations to be elected as their president in 2016, he said: (Of course we must be transparent, I have been so for the last fifteen years of my life at UEFA, and you will have to play a role every day in the life of FIFA), before telling the assembled stakeholders: (FIFA's money is your money, it is not the money of the FIFA president, it is your money, you the national associations, and FIFA's money must serve the development of football and nothing else)."
UEFA underlined its position by saying: "Infantino has failed to fulfil both promises. The wretched and murky deal he orchestrated behind closed doors and tried to force through was not transparent at all."
The statement went on: "With reserves reaching more than 5 billion dollars, he has also failed to use the associations' money for the good of the game."
It continued: "UEFA will begin working immediately with partners and stakeholders across the world and in all aspects of the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through the current FIFA Forward programme."
UEFA added: "We must start using some of that money sitting idle in FIFA's bank account to deliver the strong boost that grassroots football and the game in general need in every one of FIFA's 211 nations, but we do not need to sell our precious assets to pay for it."
It concluded: "This is a victory for the whole game, but it must not be the end of the story. The proposal is over, and the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun."