Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation have begun preliminary discussions about the possibility of organising competitions among themselves if they boycott Fifa events.
The European, North American and Asian confederations have accused Fifa president Gianni Infantino of abandoning his duty to the footballing world and losing its trust through deception as they step up their campaign for Infantino to go, hoping he will resign rather than seek a third full term in office.
Between them representing more than half of Fifa’s members, the trio have called for an independent review into Infantino’s attempt to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors and, in an open letter, said the integrity of the game was at stake in football’s civil war.
They said Infantino had failed to acknowledge his proposal was fundamentally wrong and a profound failure of judgment and said that, while Fifa is preparing a report into it, it cannot be trusted to conduct a review into its own actions.
The letter was signed by Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, his Concacaf counterpart Victor Montagliani and the AFC’s Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.
They wrote: “This is about something more fundamental: the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it.
“Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it.
“When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.
“Fifa’s recent letter to its vice-presidents and 211 member associations acknowledges that mistakes were made in the process. It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment. A proposal advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation, and pushed toward a deadline before member associations could properly review its terms is not the product of an oversight — it is the product of a design intended to limit scrutiny.
“It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was inherently wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the Fifa World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep.
“Fifa’s own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco. No Fifa council members or member associations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of Fifa-employed senior staff, was present.
“This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the Fifa management committee—not the full committee—were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of Fifa, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment.
“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him. There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness.
“Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution.”
A number of football associations, including Argentina, Morocco and Mexico, have backed Infantino while the African Football Confederation has done so unanimously.
In a statement on Saturday, Fifa said: “It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president.”
