National associations belonging to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will hold an emergency meeting to discuss a potential World Cup boycott in response to their disagreement with FIFA’s plans to create a new commercial entity backed by external investment, Sky reports.
On Tuesday, several media outlets, including Bloomberg and The Times, reported on FIFA’s intention to sell a roughly 20% stake in the new entity—to which the organization’s media and commercial rights are slated to be transferred—to private investors. FIFA later confirmed this information on its official website. UEFA issued a statement criticizing FIFA’s plans and emphasizing that “no one owns football.”
UEFA members are set to hold an emergency online meeting this week to discuss FIFA’s plans. European nations are prepared to use the threat of a World Cup boycott. European opposition could be weakened by the fact that while UEFA comprises 55 national associations, FIFA needs only the support of a majority of its 211 member associations—many of which rely on funding from the global body. However, FIFA relies on European national teams for the World Cup’s success, giving UEFA leverage. In 2021, FIFA abandoned the idea of holding the World Cup every two years after UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin stated that European teams would refuse to participate in such a format.
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