UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have accused FIFA of a "fundamental breach of trust" and "deception" over its handling of plans to sell a stake in the World Cup, saying that the episode raises serious questions about the integrity of football's leadership.
The letter, signed by the presidents and general secretaries of the three regional governing bodies, said recent controversy over the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal was fundamentally about "the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it". FFE would have meant a new company being created to manage commercial and ticketing rights of all Fifa competitions, including the World Cups, with 21% sold off to a private investment company. It was aborted after widespread criticism from several confederations, led by Uefa which has threatened a boycott of all Fifa competitions.
"A proposal advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation, and pushed toward a deadline before member associations could properly review its terms is not the product of an oversight -- it is the product of a design intended to limit scrutiny," the letter continues. "It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment - not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.
The letter was signed by Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, his Concacaf counterpart Victor Montagliani and the AFC’s Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa. They wrote: “This is about something more fundamental: the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it. “Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it. “When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.