European clubs threatened boycott before FIFA’s Infantino scrapped investment plan: Report

Europe’s leading clubs threatened to boycott future Club World Cups unless FIFA President Gianni Infantino abandoned his FIFA Forward Enterprise scheme, issuing the warning hours before the plan was scrapped earlier this month, according to a report by The Guardian daily on Friday.

Infantino’s continued FIFA leadership is seen as threatened after the plan was quickly scrapped.

In a July 31 letter to FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom, European Football Clubs (EFC) said its support for future tournaments would depend on the creation of a joint FIFA-EFC venture before broadcasting rights for the 2028 Women’s Club World Cup are sold.

EFC chief executive Charlie Marshall warned that FIFA’s actions could amount to a “substantial breach” of their existing memorandum of understanding. The group also suggested it could challenge the international match calendar and player release rules.

Infantino abandoned the privately backed Football Forward Enterprise on Aug. 1 following widespread criticism.

The EFC was particularly concerned that the FFE would control broadcasting, commercial, and sponsorship rights. It demanded confirmation that the areas would instead fall under the proposed FIFA-EFC joint venture, which it said had “unlike the FFE proposal, made no meaningful progress over the past year.”

The strongest warning came in the letter.

“Unless a fully operational Fifa-EFC CWC joint venture, with exclusive authority over, among other things, all commercial and operational matters, is established well ahead of the women’s 2028 Fifa CWC rights cycle, EFC will not support – and its member clubs will not participate in – any future edition, including the women’s and men’s 2028 and 2029 Fifa CWC,” it said.

The threat could still stand, although FIFA has reportedly promised a swift meeting to revive progress on the joint venture. The dispute reflects wider frustration among European clubs about the lack of consultation surrounding the FFE scheme. One major club said it would support EFC in any “firmer collective action” and urged a “more rigorous and transparent governance processes.”

A European boycott would effectively prevent the Club World Cup from taking place. The EFC and FIFA jointly staged last year’s expanded 32-team tournament using a temporary model for a future joint venture.

The EFC also criticized the delay in distributing £185 million ($250 million) in solidarity payments to clubs that did not participate and demanded greater transparency about the tournament’s finances.

“We ask that you urgently share the final surplus revenue generated by the 2025 Fifa WC, together with a full profit and loss statement, so that all revenues, expenses and costs can be properly assessed in line with our partnership in this competition,” it said.