Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and its 41 member associations have rejected FIFA President Gianni Infantino's proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise and sell stakes in the commercial rights to the FIFA World Cup to private investors, the confederation said in a statement.
The decision followed a meeting of the presidents of Concacaf's member associations, the confederation's president, members of the Concacaf Council and Concacaf representatives on the FIFA Council.
Participants expressed concern over what they described as the lack of a proper review process, an artificially compressed timeline for considering the proposal, and the fact that it had not been reviewed or approved by FIFA's relevant governing bodies. They also questioned the need to seek private investment to finance FIFA Forward programmes following what they described as the most profitable FIFA World Cup in the tournament's history.
Following the discussions, Concacaf and its member associations rejected the proposal and instructed their representatives on the FIFA Council to press FIFA to use its existing substantial reserves to increase funding for football development programmes in the region.
They also instructed their representatives to call on the FIFA president to ensure that similar proposals are considered in the future in accordance with FIFA's established governance procedures, through the organisation's relevant bodies and the FIFA Council, in line with the FIFA Statutes.
Concacaf said it had spent the past decade building an organisation based on service to football, transparent governance and the responsible long-term development of the sport. It added that football's future and its most valuable assets should remain under the stewardship of the football community.
Earlier, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) said all 55 of its member associations were prepared to boycott FIFA competitions over plans to transfer a stake in the commercial rights to the FIFA World Cup to private investors.
