Football's governing order rarely fractures in public. On Monday it did: UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf published a joint letter accusing FIFA president Gianni Infantino of a fundamental breach of trust, in one of the most direct challenges an Infantino leadership has faced since he took charge of world football's governing body in 2016.
The letter, signed by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, AFC president Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, along with the three confederations' general secretaries, was published as reported by ONE and corroborated by multiple international outlets.
At issue is a now-abandoned FIFA plan to sell roughly a fifth of the commercial rights to the World Cup — ticketing, broadcasting, licensing and sponsorship revenue — to outside investors, in a scheme reported to be worth around $4.2 billion and to involve, among others, an investment firm linked to Joshua Kushner. FIFA dropped the proposal only days after it became public, amid a global outcry.
The three confederations say the manner in which the plan was advanced, not just its substance, is what has broken trust. "When trust is broken through deception, and someone places themselves before the collective that entrusted authority to them, that duty is abandoned," the letter states, according to ONE's report.
They describe the process as rushed through on a compressed timeline and without meaningful consultation of member federations, calling it evidence of "deep leadership failure" rather than an isolated lapse in judgment.
"Football's strength has always been in its unity, and we call on leaders to serve the game instead of trying to control it," the letter adds — a pointed line given that UEFA, AFC and Concacaf between them represent the overwhelming majority of FIFA's member associations and clubs.
The confederations are demanding a fully independent, external investigation into how the sale was developed and presented, explicitly rejecting the idea that FIFA can credibly review itself. UEFA has separately reiterated an earlier demand that "all relevant documents and records must be preserved" to allow any inquiry to proceed unimpeded.
The letter follows a tense fortnight for FIFA. UEFA has already served what it described as a formal legal letter warning of possible legal action over the failed sell-off, and Infantino himself used a public letter in late July to accuse critics of the 2026 World Cup of "spreading hate," a response that did little to calm the row.
Notably, the joint statement stops short of explicitly calling for Infantino's resignation. But a coordinated public rebuke from three of the sport's six continental confederations — bodies that rarely align so visibly against the man who sits atop world football — signals a level of institutional anger that FIFA has not faced in years.
No Israeli federation or club is party to the letter, but the dispute matters far beyond Zurich: any FIFA governance shake-up, or a genuine external investigation into the World Cup's commercial rights, would ripple through every confederation and member association, including the Israel Football Association, which sits under UEFA.
