United front against Infantino: AFC backs UEFA and CONCACAF in rejecting FIFA's World Cup sale plan

Through a statement, they have expressed their "deep concern"

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) aligned itself this Friday with UEFA and CONCACAF in rejecting the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), the project through which FIFA aims to open the commercial exploitation of competitions such as the World Cup to private investment.

The Asian body called for an urgent review of the governance of the body chaired by Gianni Infantino in a statement, in which it expressed its "deep concern" and asserted that the initiative "cannot realistically achieve the broad consensus and unity needed to move forward," thus aligning itself with the positions previously defended by the European confederation and the North, Central America and Caribbean confederation.

The Asian statement is another setback for FIFA, after UEFA warned of the consequences the initiative could have and CONCACAF denounced the lack of prior consultation.

With the backing of the AFC for those positions, three of the six continental confederations have publicly expressed their rejection of an initiative that envisages the creation of a commercial subsidiary, valued at around 20 billion dollars, of which up to 20% of its capital could be opened to private investors.

In its statement, the AFC said that the debate has highlighted "fundamental deficiencies" in FIFA's consultation and decision-making processes. In its view, a proposal capable of altering the commercial, sporting and strategic future of world football cannot be drawn up without the effective participation of the confederations, the national associations and FIFA's own statutory bodies.

Therefore, it urged the international body to undertake an urgent review of its governance framework to ensure greater transparency and genuine participation from all football stakeholders.

For its part, FIFA defended this Friday that "no one is selling football" and announced that it will continue with the consultation process among its 211 member associations to assess the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise.

The organization maintains that it would retain control of the new company and that the operation would make it possible to increase the resources allocated to the development of world football, while insisting that the final decision will correspond to all the national federations.