FIFA's investment plan escalates tensions with UEFA
FIFA's plan to sell tournament commercial rights to private investors drew a sharp response from UEFA; UEFA threatened a boycott, FIFA withdrew the plan, but the mistrust remains.
FIFA and president Gianni Infantino announced a plan to raise $4.2bn by selling roughly a 20 per cent stake in a new company that would manage the commercial rights to its tournaments, including the World Cup; the plan valued the company at $20bn.
On 30 July UEFA held an emergency meeting with its 55 member associations and resolved to boycott FIFA tournaments including the 2030 World Cup; CONCACAF and the AFC also opposed the plan. FIFA announced on 31 July that it was abandoning the plan under pressure. According to an NPR report on 6 August, however, UEFA's mistrust persisted; Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness called for Infantino to resign.
According to a separate claim, UEFA was angered when the red card shown to United States international Folarin Balogun at the World Cup was rescinded following a call from US President Donald Trump to Infantino; UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin is reported to have said that "a red line had been crossed" and to have boycotted the final. These last two details have not been confirmed by any official UEFA or FIFA statement and appear in news sources at the level of claims.