At a moment when football's global governance is under strain, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has drawn a sharp moral line against FIFA's Gianni Infantino, condemning a now-abandoned plan to sell a stake in World Cup commercial rights as a betrayal deeper than the sport has seen before. The proposal — quietly conceived, discovered by Ceferin through press reports while on holiday — was ultimately defeated by the threat of European boycotts, but the damage to trust between football's two most powerful institutions lingers. What this episode illuminates is an older and more enduring question:
Ceferin slams Infantino's World Cup privatization plan as 'worse than Super League'
Football would be literally sold.
Mark
Why does Ceferin compare this to the Super League? They seem like different problems entirely.
Mimi
The Super League threatened football's structure—the pyramid, the competition system. But Infantino's plan would have handed ownership of the World Cup itself to private investors. Ceferin sees that as worse because it's not about changing the game; it's about selling it.
Mark
But FIFA is a private organization already. What's the meaningful difference between FIFA owning the World Cup and a private company owning part of it?
Mimi
The difference is legitimacy. FIFA, whatever its flaws, is accountable to member associations. A private investor answers to shareholders. Once you fracture that ownership, you've broken the principle that football belongs to the sport itself, not to capital.
Mark
Ceferin seems personally hurt by not being told. Is that just wounded pride, or is there a governance issue underneath?
Mimi
Both. The governance issue is real—major decisions affecting all of world football shouldn't be announced to the media before they're discussed with UEFA. But yes, there's also the sting of betrayal. Infantino rose through UEFA's ranks. Ceferin sees this as ingratitude.
Mark
What about the Trump phone call? Does that actually change anything about how FIFA operates?
Mimi
It exposes something that was probably already happening quietly. If a sitting president can call and get a rule bent, then the rules don't mean anything. It suggests FIFA's independence is theater.
Mark
Do you think Infantino survives until 2027?
Mimi
Probably. He still has support in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. But Europe has lost faith, and that matters more than people realize. The World Cup is European in origin and culture. Without European buy-in, FIFA's legitimacy erodes.
The Pulse
- FIFA's plan to sell a 21% stake in World Cup rights to private investors alarmed European football's leadership so profoundly that UEFA's member associations threatened to boycott future World Cups entirely.
- Ceferin learned of the scheme not through diplomatic channels but through media reports while vacationing with his family — a silence from Infantino he described as a deliberate breach of trust.
- The home associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland withdrew their support for Infantino, and FIFA ultimately abandoned the privatization plan under sustained institutional pressure.
- A separate scandal deepened the crisis: U.S. President Trump reportedly called Infantino to have an American player's red card suspension lifted, and when it was, Infantino claimed the decision was independent — a claim Ceferin called 'more than shocking.'
- Infantino is now touring globally to rebuild support ahead of a 2027 FIFA Congress where he will seek a fourth term, while Ceferin — who says he will not run — argues his credibility is strongest precisely because he has no stake in the outcome.
At a moment when football's global governance is under strain, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has drawn a sharp moral line against FIFA's Gianni Infantino, condemning a now-abandoned plan to sell a stake in World Cup commercial rights as a betrayal deeper than the sport has seen before. The proposal — quietly conceived, discovered by Ceferin through press reports while on holiday — was ultimately defeated by the threat of European boycotts, but the damage to trust between football's two most powerful institutions lingers. What this episode illuminates is an older and more enduring question: who, ultimately, holds custodianship of a game that belongs to everyone?
Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, has delivered one of the most pointed public rebukes in recent football governance history, condemning FIFA president Gianni Infantino's abandoned plan to privatize a portion of the World Cup's commercial rights. Speaking on a podcast, Ceferin said the scheme — which would have sold a 21% stake in a new FIFA commercial entity to private investors — was worse than the European Super League, the failed breakaway project that shook elite club football in 2021. Where the Super League threatened to damage the sport's structure, Ceferin argued, Infantino's plan would have sold it outright.
What made the episode particularly corrosive was how Ceferin discovered it: through media reports while on holiday, with no word from Infantino himself. "He didn't contact me since this happened," Ceferin said. The silence felt less like an oversight than a circumvention — a bypassing of the European institutions that had long underpinned Infantino's own rise through football's hierarchy. Ceferin noted pointedly that Infantino spent 16 years at UEFA, nine of them as general secretary, and that this history should have carried some obligation of transparency.
FIFA ultimately abandoned the plan after UEFA's member associations voted to threaten World Cup boycotts, and the home associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland withdrew their backing for Infantino. He has since traveled to the Dominican Republic and Paris — where he was photographed with Emmanuel Macron, Mohammed bin Salman, and Cristiano Ronaldo — in what appeared to be a global effort to restore his standing.
But the privatization row is not Infantino's only governance problem. Reports emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump personally called Infantino to request the reversal of a red card suspension for American striker Folarin Balogun ahead of a World Cup knockout match. When the ban was lifted and Infantino claimed the decision was independent, Ceferin was unsparing: "That was more than shocking. We have rules, and if you don't respect your own rules, then the game doesn't make any sense."
Ceferin confirmed he will not stand for FIFA president at the March 2027 Congress, where Infantino will seek a fourth term. His reasoning was telling: he values his work at UEFA and his personal life, but above all, he said, his credibility rests on having no personal stake in the race — a quiet indictment of the institution he is watching from the outside.
Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football's governing body, has delivered a scathing assessment of his FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino's now-abandoned plan to privatize portions of the World Cup. In an interview with the Rest is Politics podcast, Ceferin said the scheme was worse than the European Super League—the failed breakaway competition that nearly fractured elite club football in 2021. The comparison carries weight: where the Super League threatened to damage the sport's structure, Ceferin argued, Infantino's proposal would have sold it outright.
The plan in question was called Fifa Forward Enterprise, a new company designed to manage commercial and ticketing rights across all FIFA competitions. The proposal included selling a 21 percent stake to private investors. FIFA abandoned the initiative earlier this month after sustained pressure from UEFA, whose member associations voted to boycott future World Cups unless the plan was scrapped. The home football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all withdrew their support for Infantino in the aftermath.
What stung Ceferin most was not merely the proposal itself but how he learned of it. He discovered the plan through media reports while on holiday with his family, with no advance warning from Infantino. "He didn't contact me since this happened," Ceferin said, underscoring the breach of protocol and trust. The lack of communication felt deliberate—a circumventing of the very institutions that had long supported Infantino's rise through football's hierarchy.
Ceferin's frustration extended to what he saw as Infantino's rhetorical maneuvering. FIFA, he suggested, had been positioning itself as the defender of smaller, poorer nations against a wealthy and arrogant Europe. But Ceferin wanted to remind Infantino of a basic fact: he is European himself. Infantino spent 16 years at UEFA, serving as general secretary for nine of them. That history, Ceferin implied, should have meant something—a sense of obligation, perhaps, or at least transparency with the institutions that built him.
Infantino has since embarked on a global tour to shore up support. He met with Caribbean Football Union officials in the Dominican Republic and attended the E-Sports World Cup in Paris, where he was photographed alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. The optics suggested a man working to rebuild his standing on the world stage.
Yet Infantino's troubles extend beyond the failed privatization scheme. Earlier this month, it emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump had personally called Infantino to request that a red card suspension be overturned for American striker Folarin Balogun, allowing him to play in a World Cup knockout match against Belgium. When the suspension was lifted, Infantino claimed the decision was independent—a statement Ceferin found deeply troubling. "That was more than shocking," he said. "We have rules, and if you don't respect your own rules, then the game doesn't make any sense." The incident suggested that political pressure could influence FIFA's enforcement of its own regulations, a prospect that alarmed football's governance structures.
Ceferin confirmed he will not run for FIFA president at the Congress scheduled for March 2027, when Infantino will seek a fourth term. His reasoning was twofold: he loves his work at UEFA and wants to enjoy life, but more importantly, he said, his credibility is stronger precisely because he has no personal stake in the race. That calculation itself speaks volumes about the state of FIFA's leadership and the skepticism it now faces from Europe's football establishment.
Notable Quotes
This plan is even worse than the Super League plan. Football would be literally sold.— Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA president
Someone should remind him that he is a European, and that he was supported by UEFA, which he forgot.— Aleksander Ceferin
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