{"id":43939,"date":"2026-08-27T17:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43939"},"modified":"2026-08-27T17:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:21:15","slug":"uefa-set-to-lift-fifa-boycott-threat-as-italy-drops-support-for-infantino","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/uefa-set-to-lift-fifa-boycott-threat-as-italy-drops-support-for-infantino\/","title":{"rendered":"UEFA set to lift FIFA boycott threat as Italy drops support for Infantino"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">UEFA is set to drop its threat to \u200bboycott FIFA tournaments after receiving assurances that plans to sell stakes in the World Cup and other major competitions will not be \u200crevived, sources aware of the discussions told Reuters on Wednesday, as Italy withdrew support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nItaly became the latest national football federation to distance itself from Infantino, while European Leagues President Claudius Schaefer told The Athletic that the FIFA Chief had no future at the organisation and that world soccer&#8217;s governing body needed reform.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The move follows \u200bFIFA&#8217;s decision in July to withdraw a proposal that triggered opposition from UEFA&#8217;s 55 member associations, which agreed to boycott FIFA competitions after details \u200bof the plan emerged last month.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nA FIFA Spokesperson said all qualified teams would participate in next month&#8217;s Under-20 Women&#8217;s \u2060World Cup in Poland, the first major tournament that could have been affected by the standoff.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;FIFA is pleased that all qualified teams will be \u200bparticipating in the upcoming FIFA U-20 Women&#8217;s World Cup,&#8221; the Spokesperson told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;FIFA strongly believes that football has the power to unite, even in challenging circumstances, \u200band looks forward to welcoming all teams and players to Poland.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;We remain committed to how we can further support the global development of the game, through our competitions, through the FIFA Forward programme and through our various other initiatives, and in full dialogue with the Confederations and stakeholders.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">UEFA officials are expected to tell the governing body&#8217;s executive committee \u200band the presidents of most of its member associations at a meeting in Monaco on Thursday that the conditions for lifting the boycott have \u200bbeen met, the sources said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">UEFA has sought both the withdrawal of the proposal and assurances that similar plans would not be pursued again.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not a UEFA defeat, rather the \u200creality \u2060of avoiding hurting young players&#8217; once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The actions and insistence on change will continue,&#8221; a source familiar with the discussions told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i><u>.<\/u><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41163,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-43939","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"UEFA has sought both the withdrawal of the proposal and assurances that similar plans would not be pursued again.","published_date":"","news_description":"UEFA has sought both the withdrawal of the proposal and assurances that similar plans would not be pursued again.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43939","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\/43939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43940,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43939\/revisions\/43940"}],"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=43939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}