Ceferin says Infantino must remember his European roots

Football's two most powerful governing bodies are at odds again. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has launched a scathing attack on Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino over a shelved plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors. Ceferin argues the scheme was even more damaging than the doomed European Super League project of 2021, a moment that reshaped the balance of power in European football governance.

• Fifa scrapped its plan to launch Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), a company set up to run the commercial and ticketing rights of all its competitions.
• The proposal included selling a 21% stake in that new company to a private investment group.
• Uefa spearheaded resistance, with its member associations threatening to boycott future World Cups if the plan went ahead.
• Ceferin says he learned of the plan through media reports, not from Infantino directly.
• Ceferin has ruled himself out of running for the Fifa presidency in 2027.

What Infantino's World Cup sell-off plan involved

Infantino's idea centred on creating a standalone entity, Fifa Forward Enterprise, to centralise the commercial and ticketing operations of every Fifa competition, the World Cup included. The most contentious element was the proposal to hand just over a fifth of that company to an outside investment group, effectively opening the door for private capital to profit from football's most lucrative tournament. The plan was ultimately abandoned after sustained pressure from Uefa and its member federations.

Why Ceferin draws a comparison with the Super League

The Super League was the April 2021 attempt by a breakaway group of Europe's biggest clubs to launch a closed competition rivalling the Champions League, a project that collapsed within 48 hours amid backlash from fans, governments and football authorities. Ceferin sees that episode as damaging but ultimately driven by a handful of clubs chasing their own interests. He views Infantino's plan as more troubling still, warning that a tournament he says belongs to everyone could end up partly controlled by private financial interests.

I'm absolutely sure the plan is dead. It's hard to imagine what kind of people would sell a sport that belongs to everyone. We will not allow that to happen.

A relationship turned sour between two former colleagues

Ceferin and Infantino share a long history at Uefa, where Infantino spent 16 years, including nine as general secretary, before moving on to lead Fifa. That shared background makes the current rift all the more striking. Ceferin accuses Infantino of framing Uefa as an arrogant, wealthy bloc against a Fifa that supports the game's poorer corners, while conveniently forgetting it was Uefa that helped build his career. Uefa itself has publicly stated it has lost confidence in Infantino, and the football associations of all four home nations have withdrawn their backing too.

Trump's shadow and the Balogun controversy

Even before the World Cup sell-off row, Infantino was facing scrutiny over his closeness to US President Donald Trump. The most talked-about episode came during this summer's Club World Cup, when American striker Folarin Balogun had a red-card suspension lifted just before his side's last-16 exit to Belgium. Trump later revealed he had personally phoned Infantino to request the ban be overturned, a claim Ceferin says sits uneasily with an organisation built on rules.

The president of a country says he called and told him to look at it, then the Fifa president says it was an independent decision. That was shocking for football fans and for any governing body - and trust me, almost everyone was shocked.

What's next for the Fifa presidency

Infantino is expected to seek a fourth term at the Fifa Congress in March 2027, and has spent recent weeks travelling widely to shore up support, from meetings with Caribbean football officials to high-profile appearances alongside figures such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ceferin, meanwhile, has ruled out standing against him, insisting he prefers staying at Uefa and that his credibility as a critic is stronger precisely because he has no interest in the top Fifa job.