{"id":41160,"date":"2026-07-30T18:15:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41160"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:15:38","slug":"uefa-nations-vote-to-boycott-world-cup-over-stake-sale-plan","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/uefa-nations-vote-to-boycott-world-cup-over-stake-sale-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"UEFA nations vote to boycott World Cup over stake sale plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">UEFA\u2019s member associations have unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions in protest at FIFA\u2019s plan to sell stakes to external investors in a subsidiary that will run the global governing body\u2019s tournaments.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The tournaments include the World Cup, the European soccer body said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The decision was taken at a virtual meeting on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On Wednesday, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter slammed the world football governing body\u2019s 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.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>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.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cFootball belongs to no individual and to no institution. It belongs to the people,\u201d Blatter, 90, told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIf FIFA were transferred into a profit-oriented corporate structure, it would lose its soul,\u201d he added, noting he would never have considered such a move when he was in charge.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>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.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41163,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-41160","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The tournaments include the World Cup, the European soccer body said in a statement.","published_date":"","news_description":"The tournaments include the World Cup, the European soccer body said in a statement.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41164,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41160\/revisions\/41164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}