Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has urged Gianni Infantino to remember his European roots, describing the Fifa leader’s proposal to sell part of the World Cup’s commercial business as “more damaging than the Super League”.
Earlier this month, the global football authority dropped Infantino’s plan to establish a company called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE). It would have controlled the commercial and ticketing rights for every Fifa tournament, with a 21% share offered to a private investment firm.
Uefa spearheaded resistance to the proposal, and its members agreed to boycott World Cups if the idea was not abandoned.
European football’s governing organisation later declared that it no longer had confidence in Infantino. The football associations representing the home nations also withdrew their backing for the 56-year-old Swiss official.
“In my view, this proposal is even more harmful than the Super League project,” Ceferin said on the Rest is Politics podcast., external
“A group of major clubs tried to form a separate competition, which was wrong and could have seriously damaged football. This proposal, however, would effectively mean selling the sport itself.
“I am completely convinced that the idea is finished. It is difficult to understand how anyone could consider selling a sport that belongs to everybody. We will not let that happen.”
The European Super League was planned as a breakaway competition involving 20 leading European clubs and intended to rival Uefa’s Champions League. However, it collapsed only days after being announced in April 2021 following intense public opposition.
Ceferin said Uefa had not been informed about Infantino’s proposal beforehand, adding that he first learned of it from media reports while spending a holiday with his family.
“He has not contacted me since the situation began,” Ceferin said.
“They [Fifa] present the issue as Europe behaving arrogantly toward everyone else, arguing that Europe already has enough money while they support smaller and less wealthy nations.
“But somebody should remind him that he is European and that Uefa previously supported him, something he appears to have forgotten.”
Infantino spent 16 years working at Uefa, including nine as general secretary, and has recently travelled internationally in an effort to secure public backing.
On Saturday, he held talks with Caribbean Football Union representatives in the Dominican Republic. The following day, he attended the E-Sports World Cup in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
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