Gianni Infantino, the boss of world football's governing body Fifa, caved in to international pressure on Saturday and abandoned his brainchild to sell World Cup profits to private equity.
The move followed savage critiques of his plans from the organisations overseeing football in Asia, Europe and North America.
Infantino had proposed spinning off Fifa commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a €17 billion subsidiary with 20 percent owned by private investors including the Kushner family who have links to the American president Donald Trump.
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a statement.
“Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, boss of the Asian Football Confederation, welcomed Infantino's decision.
"The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game," he said.
'Some principles should never change'
Football Australia chairman Anter Isaac echoed Al-Khalifa.
"Football has never stood still, nor should it," Isaac said. "Some principles, however, should never change. Integrity. Independence. Good governance. Transparency. Meaningful consultation. Due process.
"These are not constraints on progress. They are what make lasting progress possible."
Infantino's plans started to take flak on Thursday.
The 55 European nations forming the continent's governing body agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other Fifa competitions if Infantino were to proceed with his plan.
“Some things are simply too important to sell,” Uefa said in a statement. “The Fifa World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”
Though it did not back a boycott, the AFC hit out at the plans. The Concacaf zone covering North and Central America as well as the Caribbean also attacked Infantino's proposals.
Concerns over proposals
Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented Fifa on the White House Task Force for the 2026 World Cup, resigned on Friday over the proposals and urged other senior Fifa staff to speak out.
“I cannot stand by while Fifa considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro said in a statement.
Fifa's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press on Friday, saying Fifa staff were deceived by Infantino's lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.
“It is the project of one person,” said Lamour, who has worked with Infantino at both Fifa and Uefa.
“Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”
The spat over the future of Fifa competitions comes less than two weeks after Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to lift the World Cup trophy.
Infantino crowed that the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada had been the most successful in the 96-year history of the competition.
Bid for Fifa presidency
But the manner in which the reform was presented might inspire Infantino's opponents.
Since taking over from Sepp Blatter as Fifa chief in 2016, Infantino has been re-elected unopposed twice and appeared firmly in control of the organisation as he seemingly cruised to a fourth term between 2027 and 2031.
"He's obviously been kind of egomaniacal in everything that he's done, sports marketing analyst Bob Dorfman told Reuters news agency.
"I know that he's rubbed many of the member associations the wrong way with some of his decisions."
Victor Matheson, a sports business expert at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, said: "It's hard to think of a situation where a person's political fortunes changed so rapidly.
"As close as two weeks ago, he's riding on top of the world, the most successful sports mega event in the history of this planet.
"And just two weeks later, he's fighting for his political life."
(With newswires)
