World football’s governing body, FIFA, has said it will not proceed with its proposal to sell a piece of its business empire to outside investors after the project was met with fierce resistance from some of its member associations.
FIFA’s plan was to raise up to $4.2bn by selling about a 20 percent stake in a new unit that would run FIFA events including the World Cup, valuing it at $20bn.
The proposal, first announced on Tuesday, was strongly opposed by European football’s governing body, UEFA, which voted on Thursday to boycott FIFA competitions.
In a statement, UEFA said that it was “irresponsible and indefensible that a proposal of such significance for football was conceived in secret”.
The Switzerland-based organisation’s statement also accused FIFA of putting the sport’s “soul” up for sale.
“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,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement late on Friday evening.
“Our purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”
Earlier on Friday, Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned with immediate effect, calling the plan “a bad deal for football”.
FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by Infantino, describing the proposal as a “project of one person”.
Reuters
