September 30 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has slammed FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, attacking the football supremo over the attempted World Cup sell-off, the Trump Peace Prize and the Balogun red card scandal.
In a speech addressing European Football Clubs General Assembly in Copenhagen, Ceferin (pictured) reached for the story by Hans Christian Andersen to criticise Infantino, without naming him by name. “The emperor is naked,” said Infantino.
“Perhaps the moral story of this is convenient words cannot change uncomfortable realities. Now world football has heard some very convenient words recently. Development, democratization, consultation, words used in fact to describe their opposite. Selling part of football’s future does not become development because you say it’s development. Putting a fait accompli in front of national associations does not mean democratization, even if you call it democratization. However big the cheque is. And secrecy does not become consultation because you call it consultation,” said Ceferin.
He once again highlighted how Infantino had left the rest of the global football community and his own organisation blindsided by secretly hatching a plan to set up a commercial entity and sell a stake in the World Cup to a private equity funded new company.
Ceferin continued: “Imagine one of your senior executives secretly negotiating away control of your club’s crown jewels. You didn’t know. Your board didn’t know. Your players didn’t know and your fans didn’t know. And by the time you find out, the deal is almost done. What would your board do?”
“It’s time to say enough,” added the UEFA boss, to a round of applause.
The European confederation have led the charge against Infantino and FIFA, leading calls for Infantino to step down. UEFA filed motions in three US jurisdictions for discovery focused on FIFA Football Enterprise (FFE) documentation and communications between the co-conspirators. On Monday, FIFA responded by accusing UEFA in its filing of ‘harassment.” The world federation also alleged a campaign of ‘misinformation’, though has not detailed what that misinformation might be.
Infantino himself has doubled down and embarked on the campaign trail. In the last few days, he has travelled to the Caribbean, Latvia and Azerbaijan, as well as Poland where he presented the Women’s U20 World Cup final trophy.
But Infantino, who delivered a speech at last year’s EFC GA in Rome, did not attend EFC’s annual gathering and left it to his general secretary and right-hand man Mattias Grafstrom to represent FIFA.
EFC clubs accounted for more than 850 of if the roughly 1,200 players at the FIFA’s World Cup. Without the clubs and their players FIFA does not have a World Cup or a cash cow that will excite broadcasters, sponsors and host nations. Infantino is walking a tightrope and with a support base of mainly small football nations, his is fundamentally a false grip on world football.
In Copenhagen, Ceferin concluded his speech, taking another jab at Infantino. “Let’s never forget that football is bigger than those who govern it. We are custodians, we are not owners. Nobody has a right to sell its future. Football, my dear friends, is not for sale. Not today, not tomorrow, and not ever.”
Contact the writer of this story at samindra.kunti@insideworldfootball.com
