Football: FIFA Private Investment Plan Further Developments
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
Following the announcement, on 1 August 2026, that the controversial FIFA plan to sell stakes in its major competitions has been abandoned, UEFA not only welcomed this decision but has also issued a damning Statement.
In this Statement, UEFA remarked that it, and many other members of the football family, have lost confidence in the current FIFA leadership, and accused Infantino of failing to deliver on promises that he made when campaigning to become the President of FIFA in 2016.
The UEFA Statement goes on as follows:
"When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of Fifa's member associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said: 'Of course we have to be transparent.'
He told the assembled stakeholders: 'The money of Fifa is your money. It's not the money of the Fifa president. You are the national associations, and the money of Fifa has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.'
On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent."
This, of course, puts Infantino under tremendous pressure as he seeks re-election for a fourth term as the President of FIFA at its Congress to be held in March 2027.
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
