UEFA’s member associations have unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions in protest at FIFA’s plan to sell stakes to external investors in a subsidiary that will run the global governing body’s tournaments.
The tournaments include the World Cup, the European soccer body said in a statement.
The decision was taken at a virtual meeting on Thursday.
On Wednesday, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter slammed the world football governing body’s plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup, saying the tournament was not a commercial asset that belonged to a few executives.
Blatter, who was FIFA President for 17 years until 2015, said the idea put forward by his successor Gianni Infantino would take commercialisation of the sport too far.
“Football belongs to no individual and to no institution. It belongs to the people,” Blatter, 90, told Reuters.
“If FIFA were transferred into a profit-oriented corporate structure, it would lose its soul,” he added, noting he would never have considered such a move when he was in charge.
FIFA said on Tuesday it plans to create the subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events and will offer stakes of up to 20% in it to external investors.
—Reuters—
