UEFA to boycott FIFA tournaments if Gianni Infantino sells stake in the World Cup

What a day we're having at the Sports Test.Some major breaking news now.It concerns UEFA have been holding an emergency meeting this afternoon to discuss a coordinated response to Gianni Infantino's plan to sell off stakes in FIFA in the World Cup to private investors.Kaveh Salakul is with me as you can see.Kaveh, welcome along.What can you tell us about the meeting, the latest developments?

Well, UEFA have decided that if Gianni Infantino goes ahead with this proposal, they will boycott all FIFA tournaments.So UEFA saying to Gianni Infantino, enough is enough.We're not going to let you do this.And if you go ahead and do this, even if you think you have the votes to carry the day and go ahead with these controversial proposals, we will not in the future play in any of your tournaments.The next big tournament on the horizon is the Women's World Cup.next summer in Brazil.

So as things stand, no European countries would play in that tournament.And also, the next World Cup, 2030, Spain, Portugal, Morocco.European countries would not play in that tournament.This is UEFA basically showing that they're united and also that they totally and utterly oppose Gianni Infantino's proposal to sell off a stake in the World Cup.

If Infantino says, OK, I'll call you a bluff.This would mean to underscore at the end of the Women's World Cup, the end of the Men's World Cup, as we know it, potentially a rival breakaway?

Well, basically what it would mean is, it would mean the end of Gianni Infantino's proposals.Because if I'm an investor and I'm sitting in Wall Street and I'm looking at investing money and buying a 20 % stake in FIFA's tournaments, Why would I put money on the table and invest in tournaments that don't have European countries?Look at the World Cup that we've just had.Six of the eight quarter -finalists were from Europe.Three of the semi -finalists were from Europe.The winners were from Europe.

Why would anybody invest in Gianni Infantino's madcap scheme when it wouldn't have Spain, it wouldn't have France, it wouldn't have England, it wouldn't have Italy, it wouldn't have Germany?The proposal is dead in the water.But of course, we don't know what Gianni Infantino is going to do next, because he's sitting in his ivory tower in Zurich being interviewed by people he employs trying to sell this project.But if I was an investor waking up this morning in New York reading this news about how UEFA have responded, I would be thinking, hey, Maybe I need to invest in something else because Gianni hasn't been able to deliver what he promised he was going to deliver.

And also, as well, we should stress the best teams at the moment or recent tournaments in women's football have been European as well, Spain and England in the last final.What does this mean in terms of the other associations, the other governing bodies, or is that moot now?It doesn't matter.

Now UEFA have said this, it doesn't matter what the other - Well, there's six confederations in world football.What we know is that UEFA absolutely totally and utterly are not in favor of this and will do whatever it takes to stop it.What else do we know?We know, for instance, the Confederation CONCACAF that runs football in North and Central America.They seem to be against it as well.They released a statement yesterday saying, we're deeply concerned, we're disappointed that this was all done in secret.

We've had the Asian Football Confederation, who are normally rock solidly behind Gianni Infantino, come out and say we're deeply concerned as well, why weren't we consulted?So Gianni Infantino is losing support from confederations, but I still think there are plenty of football associations around the world, remember there's 211 of them, who will say Gianni has quadrupledthe amount of money we get from FIFA.And he's now coming along and saying, in January, we can have an extra $20 million.And going forward, we can have triple as much money as we're getting.A lot of them will say, wow, this is great.

We're going to sign up to it.But it doesn't matter if they sign up to it or not, because without UEFA, without European countries, you cannot have a proper World Cup.And if this develops into a serious split between UEFA and FIFA... which I probably don't think it will, you could also have the potential on the horizon where UEFA think, look, we already do a great job of running the Champions League, we do a great job of running the Euros, why don't we set up our own version of the World Cup and we can invite Argentina, Brazil, the best sides in Africa, the best sides in Asia to play in that as well.

And what does that prospect, where does it all leave Gianni Infantino?Because widely perceived it's going to be processional next year that he gets reinstated as president.Could there be any way now that people are galvanised to oppose him?Or as you mentioned the 211 federations, does that mean that regardless of what you aim for...

I don't understand the thing about Gianni Infantino is why does he make himself such a controversial figure?He's already the most powerful person in world football.He's the president of FIFA.They just had a great World Cup.According to them, it was the greatest World Cup ever.He should be the sort of, you know, height of his powers.

He should be popular.Instead, he's made himself even more unpopular than Sepp Blatter.There are people in the world of football who now pine for the days when Sepp Blatter was the FIFA president.What is he doing?Why is he getting into bed with Donald Trump and his family?Why is he trying to set stakes in the World Cup.

Why not just do your day job and run world football properly instead of being such a controversial figure and lookingin the mirror and thinking that you're a president, that you're an oligarch, that you're a statesman, when at the end of the day all you are is the custodian of world football.

Okay, Kaveh Solakul, thank you very much for now.So just that breaking news to reiterate, UEFA will boycott FIFA tournaments, so the World Cup included, if Gianni Infantino goes ahead with his proposal to sell off a stake in the World Cup.More on that as we get it here at Sky Sports News.Okay, so the massive breaking news we've been considering this afternoon, UEFA will boycott FIFA tournaments if Gianni Infantino goes ahead with his plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup, in particular in FIFA.Kaveh Solakor covering this for us, and you've rejoined us, Kaveh, what do you have?

Well, look, it's been a fantastic week for punchy statements from UEFA.This is the punchiest one we've had yet.The big question now is, have they landed a knockout blow on FIFA president Gianni Infantino?Great statement, this.Basically, what UEFA are saying, In black and white, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competitions for as long as these proposals, Gianni Infantino's crazy plan to sell off a 20 % stake in the World Cup, remain alive.Unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open up its governance or competitions to private ownership.

So UEFA, unanimously, all 55 member associations, the strongest confederation with the strongest teams in world football, sending a message loud and clear to FIFA and Gianni Infantino.We will not play in your tournaments.We won't play in the World Cup.We won't play in the Women's World Cup.We won't play in the Club World Cup.unless you abandon these proposals and also you get rid of them.

us assurances that you will never try to do this again.There's plenty more in this statement as well, some really brilliant sort of headlines, some brilliant sentences, UEFA I think basically reflecting what the vast majority of football fans around the world are feeling today about Gianni Infantino and FIFA.For instance, they say the World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product.No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors.The World Cup is not for sale.They say this was done without any meaningful consultation.

This is a profound failure of leadership on Gianni Infantino's part.They say also about this ultimatum, you know we were talking about yesterday the fact that the FAs have been given 53 days to accept this offer or basically stick with the funding that they already have in place.UEFA says this is governance by intimidation.They're accusing Gianni Infantino of running world football by intimidation.And they say, this model has no place in world football.Football cannot mortgage its future for financial gain.

Europe's position is clear.We will never lend this model our legitimacy.

Have you ever seen anything on this scale?We had the club Super League.bashed down, didn't we?Is it equivalent to that?Is it bigger?FIFA's run World Football since 1904.

Is this an existential threat?

I think this is bigger, perhaps.It's different to the European Super League proposals, which died off in, what, three or four days.I think this is bigger, because this is to do with the World Cup.This is not just about Europe.Interesting, of course, that the bank, JP Morgan, were involved in the proposals for a European Super League, and they're involved in this as well.I think a lot of times, you know, we criticize UEFA.

UEFA are not perfect.But on this issue, they have shown remarkable leadership.And this is what football needs at this time.I know for a fact there's no love lost between Alexander Shefferin, the UEFA president, and Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA.But this is not personal.Alexander Shefferin is somebody who stands by his principles.

Remember, he didn't go to the World Cup final.He boycotted the World Cup final two weeks ago in New York, New Jersey, because he didn't want any part of it and because he is so concerned about the way that Gianni Infantino is not just running the World Cup, but also FIFA as well.So I think as a football fan, as a football fan, because we're all football fans as well, I think you have to applaud what UEFA are doing.They've released some brilliant statements this week, and this is exactly what football needs to stop Gianni Infantino.The big question now is, how does Gianni Infantino respond?

Well, what do you think?Because you called it an ultimatum yesterday from FIFA.This is the reverse ultimatum, isn't it now?Because they're saying we're going to pull out of all your tournaments unless you scrap this.

This is black and white as well.If you're Gianni Infantino and you're reading this now, how are you going to respond?The investors are going to be on the phone to you.Members of Donald Trump's family are probably going to be on the phone to you.Who knows?Maybe even President Trump is going to be on the phone to you saying, what's going on Gianni?

You told us that we could...The share price is dropping.You told us that we could buy a stake in the World Cup.You promised that you could deliver this.This has been a shambles this week.For a start, why did it leak to the Times and the Financial Times?

And why have you not been able to manage the fallout?Because you're making us all look stupid now.And are you seriously expecting us to invest in a World Cup?scheme, which is not going to include European teams?

Do you expect him to reply, Infantino, in the next couple of days?

Well, I think Infantino, if he wanted to push this through, I still think there's a chance that more than 50 % of FAs around the world would sign up to his proposal, because he's already quadrupled the amount of money they're getting, and he's promising to Treble the money that they will get going forward.So there are plenty of FAs who will sign up to that But Gianni Infantino when he looks at the situation at the moment, he's thinking how can I have a Women's World Cup next summer without European teams?How can I have a Club World Cup?How can I have a World Cup?And as it got to the situation where the rift between me and UEFA is so large that UEFA may want to go their own way because and perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but UEFA saying we're going to boycott the World Cup, their countries are still going to want to play in a global competition.So then you've got the potential in the future.

of if this rift is not sorted out between FIFA and UEFA, that UEFA could potentially set up a rival to the World Cup and have their own tournament.And we've seen UEFA are very, very good at running competitions.They've got the Champions League, they've got the Europa League, the Conference League, they've got the Euros, they've got the Women's Euros, they've got the Women's Champions League.It's not like they need help from FIFA.And they could pick up the phone and invite the best teams from CONCACAF, the best teams from South America, the best teams from Asia and Africa to play in UEFA's World Cup, which would need a new name.