UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) issued a joint open letter attacking FIFA president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of fraud.
The three federations said football's growth over the past decade was real but was never the achievement of one person. They said it came from the work of FIFA, the confederations, member associations and thousands of people who devoted their lives to the sport, citing expanded tournaments, the awarding of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, and the distribution of funds among associations as jointly agreed, jointly delivered achievements.
Federations demand accountability
The coalition said the dispute was not about money but about honesty and transparency. They said it was not about any member association losing support despite fear-mongering suggesting otherwise, and not about reconsidering tournament expansion, World Cup slot allocation or other decisions made jointly, which they said must stand.
They said leadership in football is not something to be owned, held or demanded, but a duty of service to the football family that trusts it, and that when trust is broken by fraud and an individual places themselves above the collective that granted them power, that duty is abandoned.
Privatization attempt criticized
The letter also addressed an attempt to partially privatize football events, including the World Cup. The federations said a communication error had occurred and FIFA had struggled with transparency, adding that it had never been acknowledged that the proposal itself was inherently flawed, or that the attempt to sell shares in the FIFA World Cup was a serious misjudgment amounting to a fundamental breach of trust rather than a procedural error.
FIFA has committed to presenting a full report on the events to the FIFA Council, but the federations said proper governance would require a fully independent third party to conduct the review, not FIFA, its staff or any football stakeholder, adding that FIFA's administration should play no role in the process.
The letter closed with an appeal for a return to values the authors said should be fundamental to world football.
