Gianni Infantino wants to sell off the World Cup. How can he be stopped?

July 30, 2026 — 12:04pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

The rebellion against Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup has led to influential figures in football scrambling to oppose the FIFA president’s scheme.

Infantino is an increasingly prominent figure on the world stage, thanks in no small part to his close relationship with Donald Trump, but that does not mean he is all-powerful.

Here are the ways in which Infantino’s plot to sell the “soul” of football, as European governing body UEFA described it, could potentially be blocked.

Kill the competition with a boycott

What would the World Cup be without European nations? It is a question that FIFA will have to consider should UEFA’s threat of a boycott materialise. Lobbying is already taking place to determine whether a European boycott could be agreed.

The absence of European nations from the men’s and women’s World Cups would be a devastating blow to the competition. Five of the last six men’s World Cups have been won by European nations, and three of this year’s four World Cup semi-finalists were European. After all, both the men’s and women’s world champions are Spain.

The World Cup is regarded as the pinnacle of the game and much of its commercial appeal hinges on the presence of leading players. A boycott of European teams (and subsequent absence of many of the world’s top players) would undermine the competition at every level.

The threat of a boycott has been used before. In 2021, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin warned of a boycott by European and South American countries if FIFA pursued plans to stage the World Cup every two years. A few months later, Infantino backed away from the project, claiming it had never been proposed.

All 55 UEFA members would need to agree to a boycott, so it remains to be seen whether such drastic action is feasible. The early indications are that it might be difficult to convince all members to stand together on this issue. On Wednesday, the president of the Czech Republic’s football association said........

© The Sydney Morning Herald