Ceferin Says FIFA World Cup Stake Plan Is Dead After UEFA Opposition

What happened: UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has sharply criticised FIFA president Gianni Infantino over an abandoned proposal to place FIFA competition revenues inside a new company and sell a minority stake to private investors. BBC Sport reported that Ceferin described the proposal as more damaging than the failed European Super League plan and said he was certain it would not return.

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The proposed business, FIFA Forward Enterprise, would have managed the commercial and ticketing rights for all FIFA competitions. Under Infantino's plan, a 21% holding would have been sold to a private investment company. FIFA abandoned the proposal earlier in August after UEFA led opposition, with UEFA members voting to boycott World Cups unless the plan was dropped.

Why it matters: UEFA has since said it no longer has confidence in Infantino. The football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also withdrawn their support for the Swiss administrator. Ceferin argued that football would effectively have been sold through the proposed structure, contrasting the plan with the 2021 Super League project involving leading European clubs.

Ceferin told The Rest Is Politics podcast that UEFA had not been consulted before the proposal emerged and that he learned of it through media reports while on holiday. He also said Infantino had not contacted him since the dispute began. According to the BBC, Infantino has recently travelled internationally seeking public support.

The disagreement arrives ahead of the FIFA Congress scheduled for March 2027, when Infantino is expected to pursue a fourth term as president. Ceferin said he would not challenge for the FIFA position, explaining that he wants to continue his work at UEFA and believes his criticism carries greater credibility if he is not seeking Infantino's job.

Ceferin also renewed criticism of FIFA over the decision to overturn United States forward Folarin Balogun's red-card suspension during the 2026 World Cup. US President Donald Trump said he had personally called Infantino about the sanction, while FIFA maintained the outcome was independently decided. Ceferin said the episode raised serious concerns about whether football's own rules were being respected.