UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Monday of a "significant breach of trust" over his plans to bring private capital into football's governing body.
The accusation came in a joint open letter to what the three confederations called "the football family," published on August 10, 2026. UEFA represents Europe, CONCACAF represents Central America, North America and the Caribbean, and the AFC represents Asia. The letter renewed the confederations' criticism of Infantino and what they described as a self-centered approach to leadership.
The letter said leadership in football is not a possession, and is not about displaying or demanding power in order to exercise it. It said leadership is a duty of service to the football family that grants it, and that when trust is broken through deception, or when a person places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.
It was signed by the presidents and secretaries-general of all three bodies: Aleksander Ceferin and Theodore Theodoridis of UEFA, Victor Montagliani and Philippe Moggio of CONCACAF, and Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Datuk Seri Windsor John of the AFC.
Private capital plan at the centre of the dispute
The three confederations said the dispute was not about money, about a loss of support, or about the reconfiguration of competition formats, all of which they said had been decided jointly. Instead, they said the issue was the integrity of football and of those elected to lead it.
The letter focused on a plan by Infantino, since abandoned, to create a FIFA subsidiary with a private capital stake capped at 20 percent, intended to commercialize FIFA's competitions. UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF again singled out the Italian-Swiss official over the way the plan was handled.
The letter said a proposal submitted under extremely restrictive circumstances, without meaningful consultation and rushed toward a deadline before FIFA's 211 member associations could properly examine its terms, was not the result of negligence but of a strategy to limit oversight.
Criticism over Infantino's Morocco trip
The letter also criticized a recent trip by Infantino to Morocco, which took place after the crisis over the subsidiary plan had already broken out. UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF said the visit reinforced the impression of someone who believes football owes him something.
The letter said that at the meeting, a restricted group of members of FIFA's Management Committee, rather than the full committee, was convened abroad instead of officials traveling to Zurich to address FIFA's own staff at its headquarters. It said this only reinforced the confederations' concerns and represented a continuation of the same pattern of behavior that had led to the current situation. The three bodies said this was not the conduct of a guardian of football, but of someone who believes football must answer to him.
Confederations call for unity
The letter closed with an appeal for unity among member federations and repeated that leaders must serve football rather than serve themselves.
It said there is silence where there should be accountability, and distance where there should be transparency, and that these are not the qualities football deserves in its leaders. The three confederations said they were taking this stance not lightly or on their own, but jointly, out of the duty they owe to the football they serve.
