UEFA (Europe), AFC (Asia), and CONCACAF (North and Central America) are joining forces to demand accountability against FIFA and demand an independent investigation regarding the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative, in which FIFA proposed to sell of minority stakes of World Cup to private investors.
"FIFA acknowledges that mistakes were made in the process, it did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong", said a joint statement signed by the Presidents and General Secretaries of the three confederations. "It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment. 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."
UEFA, AFC, and CONCACAF criticised that FIFA launched a report on these events by FIFA themselves, claiming it should be a fully independent third party, and criticised that the letter apologising for the mistakes was sent from a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, where no other FIFA Council Members or Member Associations were invited. "There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness".
The statement on Monday responds a statement by FIFA on Saturday in which they said there is "a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its President" (Gianni Infantino) and claimed that misinformation has been used to attack Infantino. FIFA has CONMEBOL (South America) and CAF (Africa) by their side, and it appears the division will grow bigger in the coming months before the next elections at the FIFA Council in March 2027, where Infantino expect to be elected again, unless UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC agree to unify behind a different candidate... like Nasser al-Khelaifi.
