UEFA Agrees to Boycott World Cup Over FIFA's Plans for Private Investment in Tournament

The Union of European Football Associations released a statement Thursday revealing "its 55 member associations stand as one" and "unanimously and unequivocally reject FIFA's proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors."

Most notably, the statement said "no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership."

The statement also stressed "the World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product" and "is not for sale" while calling the secrecy of the proposal process "both irresponsible and indefensible."

It also explained "the moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever" and called the model something that "has no place in world football."

As James Horncastle and Megan Feringa of The Athletic noted, FIFA confirmed Tuesday it wants to sell a minority stake of up to 21 percent in a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) to take over commercial operations for events such as the World Cup.

In theory, the money would then go to member associations, although such a proposal must be approved by FIFA's 211 member associations.

"Football is the world's most popular sport and an extraordinary engine of human and social development," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in support of the proposal, per Horncastle and Feringa. 

"Parts of the game have turned that popularity into remarkable commercial value—and we celebrate that success and want it to continue, because it lifts the whole game. Our job is to make sure the rest of football grows with it: FIFA exists to support sustainable, inclusive development in every corner of the world."

Concacaf and the Asian confederation also expressed concerns about the process in which the proposal was reached.

Yet the boycott threat from UEFA is quite the blow to FIFA's efforts seeing how it would be difficult to call any World Cup title without its confederation a legitimate one. Spain is the reigning World Cup champion on both the men's and women's side, and there is no shortage of powerhouses in world football included in UEFA.

The confederation includes some of the most notable international teams in the world in France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Portugal, Italy and Norway, among others.

The back and forth and concern about FIFA's proposal comes shortly after the men's World Cup just finished this summer and before the women's World Cup takes center stage next year in Brazil.

The next men's World Cup is scheduled to take place in 2030 in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.