An overwhelming majority: how many federations raised the banner of rebellion against Infantino? | Goal.com

Published on 30 Jul 2026 | Reading time: 2 minutes

The circle of controversy is widening around Gianni Infantino's plan to sell a stake in the commercial rights to the World Cup and future FIFA tournaments to private-sector investors. More and more national associations are lining up against the FIFA President.

Spanish newspaper "AS" published an image on its official accounts mapping out where each continental confederation stands right now.

According to the paper, UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North and Central America) and the Asian confederation have all rejected the project. Africa (CAF), South America (CONMEBOL) and Oceania (OFC) are yet to issue an official position. That takes the total number of rejecting countries to 136, against 75 that have not yet declared their stance.

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Europe's 55 associations had already announced a boycott of all FIFA tournaments if the project goes ahead. In their view "the World Cup is not for sale", and turning the tournament into an investment asset is a dangerous overstepping of the nature of the game and its administration.

CONCACAF and the Asian confederation then joined the opposition, widening the circle of the crisis within world football, according to "AS".

At the heart of the row is a proposal to create a new entity to manage the commercial rights of FIFA tournaments, selling a stake of up to 20% to external investors. It sparked fierce criticism because the continental and national associations were never consulted, and many fear how much sway investors could hold over the future of the major tournaments.

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