Uefa says boycott threat remains despite FA withdrawing support for Infantino

UEFA says it is still prepared to consider a boycott of FIFA competitions despite the abandonment of a controversial commercial proposal, insisting its conditions for restoring confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino have not been met.

The stance comes after The Football Association formally withdrew its support for Infantino, citing concerns over plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors through the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).

Although the proposal has since been abandoned, UEFA said that alone was not enough.

“First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again,” UEFA said in a statement.

“These conditions have not been met.”

UEFA has previously described the FFE proposal as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal” and said it no longer has confidence in Infantino’s leadership.

However, the governing body faces an uphill task in building enough international support to challenge the FIFA president before next year’s election.

While UEFA had hoped sustained pressure would encourage Infantino to step down, there is little indication he intends to do so, and support for his leadership remains strong in many parts of world football.

Lamin Kaba Bajo praised Infantino’s handling of the controversy, saying the FIFA president had shown “courage” by reversing the proposal and that he was now “willing to give him my support more than ever”.

CONCACAF acknowledged the withdrawal of the proposal but stopped short of saying it had lost confidence in Infantino, while CONMEBOL said it would not support any action that bypassed FIFA’s established governance procedures ahead of the presidential election.

Only Jordan Football Association has publicly stated it will not support Infantino’s re-election.

UEFA would prefer to convene an emergency meeting of the FIFA Council to hold the president to account, but securing the backing of the required 19 members of the 36-member council has so far proved difficult.

If those efforts fail, UEFA could still pursue its most drastic option by boycotting FIFA competitions.

That position could be tested when the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup begins in Poland on 5 September, with six European nations, including England, scheduled to take part.