FIFA's plan to sell off minority stakes in itself to private investors has not been received well by the world soccer community. UEFA, the governing body of soccer in Europe, is the first to really take a firm stand against FIFA's plan to allow World Cups to "be for sale."
On Thursday, UEFA made a decision to formally boycott all upcoming World Cups — including the 2027 Women's World Cup and the 2030 Men's World Cup — after conducting a virtual meeting with all 55 countries that are part of UEFA. That's per The Athletic, which noted that UEFA doubled down on its boycott stance, under which countries like France, England, Germany, and even reigning men's World Cup champion Spain would forgo participation in upcoming World Cups unless FIFA backs
down from its plans for private investment. Such plans would reportedly transfer some ownership interests in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to said undisclosed investors.
More from The Athletic:
“As a result of today’s discussion, 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.”
That is quite the strong stance to take, especially for an organizing body representing a continent with four of the six current best women's teams in the world (per the FIFA rankings) and six of the 10 current best men's teams. UEFA has a lot of leverage here on these facts of quality teams alone.
UEFA's leaders continued in an extended statement about their boycott.
Via The Athletic:
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product,” it said [the statement]. “It [The World Cup] is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters across every continent. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale ...
... Europe’s position is clear. We will never lend this model our legitimacy. No one has the moral authority to sell what they merely hold in trust for the next generation.”
Well, we know where Europe stands, and it's not happy. This is certainly a big strike against what FIFA wants to accomplish here.
Does FIFA really need UEFA to approve these plans?
FIFA can technically still move forward without UEFA/Europe's backing. It only needs a majority of its 211 participating soccer associations, among them U.S. Soccer and the English FA, to approve the private investment plans. That and the approval of the FIFA Council, which is led by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The deadline to do so is September 19th.
With that said, losing the world's arguably strongest soccer continent in World Cups for at least the foreseeable future would probably nullify any perceived gains made by this private investment strategy.
It wouldn't be a win-win for FIFA at all. That's for sure.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Why are European countries planning to boycott upcoming World Cups?
