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UEFA has launched a fierce attack on FIFA president Gianni Infantino, calling a now-scrapped plan to sell a stake in the World Cup 'shabby' and 'opaque'. European football’s governing body formally said it had completely lost confidence in the FIFA leadership after the controversial £15 billion private investment proposal collapsed amid heavy worldwide pressure.

UEFA hits out at secret plans and backroom dealing

The relationship between football’s two most powerful governing bodies has sunk to a new low in the aftermath of FIFA’s attempt to sell a 20 per cent stake in its commercial assets. In an unusually direct statement, UEFA welcomed FIFA’s decision to pull back from the proposal, while making it plain that the episode has caused lasting damage to Infantino’s standing.

UEFA said: 'UEFA welcomes FIFA’s decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions - including the World Cup - into private hands. We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.'

Infantino accused of falling short on transparency promises

At the heart of UEFA’s anger is what it sees as a betrayal of the commitments Infantino made when he was elected to lead world football in 2016. At that time, he had promoted a new era of openness in the wake of the corruption scandals during the Sepp Blatter years.

The strongly worded statement continued: 'It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again. That review should be thorough and fundamental, with no option off the table, as the current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.'

A win for the football community

The collapse of the 'FIFA Forward Enterprise' project came after a united stand from UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC. Those confederations were ready to consider a boycott of future World Cups if the proposal to sell the 'family silver' to private investors had gone ahead.

'The shabby, backroom, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through was anything but transparent,' the UEFA statement added. 'We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in FIFA’s bank account to deliver the kickstart that the grassroots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of FIFA. But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it. This is a victory for the whole game, but it must not be the end of the story - the proposal has gone, yet the task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun.'

Infantino admits project caused deep divisions

Confronted by a full-scale revolt from the game’s most influential stakeholders, Infantino was forced to accept that the commercial project was no longer workable. The FIFA president acknowledged that the proposal had become a cause of division rather than an instrument for progress, and dropped plans to create 'FIFA Forward Enterprise' - a subsidiary intended to manage the World Cup’s highly valuable commercial assets. Football’s global governing body had valued the entity at £15bn and was looking to sell a 20 per cent stake for £3.1bn to private investors.

Explaining the reversal, Infantino said: '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. Our purpose has always been - and will always be - to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.'