Three of football's biggest confederations have publicly challenged FIFA president Gianni Infantino, with UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF issuing a joint open letter to the FIFA president.
The letter was signed by the three confederation presidents and their general secretaries, marking an unusually direct challenge from some of the organisations that hold significant influence within FIFA. This intervention adds to the pressure on Infantino ahead of his bid for another term as FIFA president.
What UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF Said in Their Joint Statement
UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF state clearly that this is not about money or re-opening decisions like the 2030 and 2034 World Cup hosting awards. Their concern, they write, is trust, and whether football's leadership still answers to the people who elected it.
The trigger was FIFA's recent attempt to sell a commercial stake in the World Cup itself, a plan scrapped after backlash earlier this month. FIFA later acknowledged mistakes in how the plan had been handled and apologised to its member associations.
The three confederations reject that. In their view, FIFA showed poor judgment by advancing a major commercial and governance proposal without adequate consultation, on a compressed timeline to limit proper scrutiny.
The confederations say a leadership meeting held in Morocco during the crisis included only one elected official. Everyone else was FIFA management staff, with neither members of the FIFA Council nor representatives of member associations invited to attend.
UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF are now demanding a fully independent investigation, carried out by an outside party rather than FIFA reviewing itself. They have also formally requested that every document and record tied to the failed sale be preserved.
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Full Statement: What the Confederations Wrote
Dear Football Family,
Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution.
It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the Member Associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future.
It is in that spirit, as Confederations representing our members, that we speak collectively today.
The growth over the past decade has been real. But that progress was never the work of one individual. It was the product of FIFA, the Confederations, the Member Associations, and the thousands of people who dedicate their lives to the game.
The expanded tournaments, the awarding of the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cups, the distribution of resources to associations. These were shared achievements, agreed together, delivered together.
This is not about money. The Confederations have already called for the responsible distribution of FIFA's vast existing reserves to further strengthen investment in the development of Member Associations.
Nor is it about any Member Association losing the support it has earned, despite the fearmongering directed at our membership to suggest otherwise. Nor is it about revisiting the expansion of competitions, World Cup allocations, or any other decisions reached collectively. Those decisions were made together, and they must stand.
This is about something more fundamental: the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it.
Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it.
When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.
FIFA's recent letter to its Vice-Presidents and 211 Member Associations acknowledges that mistakes were made in the process. It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgement. A proposal advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation, and pushed towards 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.
It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgement – not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.
FIFA has also committed to presenting a full report on these events to the FIFA Council, once again failing to recognise that proper governance in the face of such a profound lack of judgement would require that such a review be conducted by a fully independent third party, not by FIFA itself, its staff, or by any stakeholder within football. The FIFA administration should play no role in conducting the review.
As per previous correspondence, all relevant documents and records must be preserved in accordance with UEFA’s communication on preservation of documents.
FIFA's own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco. No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.
This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the FIFA management committee – not the full committee – were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment. It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him.
There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness.
These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.
Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now, for leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.
Yours sincerely,
SALMAN BIN IBRAHIM AL KHALIFA (AFC President)
VICTOR MONTAGLIANI (Concacaf President)
ALEKSANDER ČEFERIN (UEFA President)
DATUK SERI WINDSOR JOHN (AFC General Secretary)
PHILIPPE MOGGIO (Concacaf General Secretary)
THEODORE THEODORIDIS (UEFA General Secretary)
What Happens Next in FIFA’s Leadership Crisis
FIFA is yet to respond to the demand for an independent probe, and no timeline has been given. The joint letter carries far more weight than criticism from a pundit or a single national federation.
UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF between them represent the vast majority of FIFA's 211 member associations, and having all three sign the same letter on the same day is not something Infantino can dismiss.
