Gianni Infantino plans to sell stakes in the World Cup and other FIFA competitions look dead in the water as Asian nations voiced their opposition.
This week, it was reported that the FIFA president wanted to seek private investment in FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup, by creating a commercial subsidiary to run its main events.
External investors would have been able to make “minority, non-controlling investments” in a new subsidiary – Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE).
The plans sparked immediate fury from large parts of the football world, and on Thursday all 55 UEFA members said they would be boycotting FIFA tournaments if the plans went ahead.
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This was followed by the north and central American federation, CONCACAF, also voicing its opposition to the idea.
Now, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has published a statement saying it “stands in solidarity” with its counterparts in Europe and North, Central America and the Caribbean.
The AFC said Infantino’s plan could not “realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward”.
“The Fifa World Cup is the pinnacle of global football and derives its strength from the participation of all Confederations and the world’s leading football nations,” it said.
“Any proposal that risks undermining the unity and universal character of the competition must be reconsidered.”
Infantino’s proposals would need a majority vote among FIFA’s 211 members in order to pass.
Between them, UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC make up 136 nations and would therefore have enough votes to block Infantino’s plans.
Effectively, this means the proposals are dead in the water, just days after they emerged.
At the same time, Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro has resigned from his position in protest, saying he “unequivocally” opposes the plans.
Cordeiro said Infantino’s proposal was “a bad deal for football” and would “mortgage football’s future”.
He had been a FIFA senior adviser for just under five years