The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has attacked his embattled Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino in a scathing takedown of the failed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and other recent scandals, saying “the emperor is naked” and declaring “it is time to say ‘enough’”.
In a pointed address to the European Football Clubs (EFC) general assembly, Ceferin did not mention Infantino by name but made clear his view that Fifa’s leadership must change. He drew on the event’s location, Copenhagen, to make a comparison to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes in assessing Infantino’s conduct, making clear reference to the peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and last summer’s Folarin Balogun affair along with the FFE scheme.
“An emperor is persuaded that he is wearing magnificent clothes – clothes which, he is told, only the foolish or unfit cannot see,” Ceferin said. “His court goes along with it. Until a child simply says aloud what everyone can see: the emperor is naked. Perhaps the moral of the story is this: convenient words cannot change uncomfortable realities.
“Selling part of football’s future does not become development because you call it development. Putting a fait accompli in front of national associations does not become democratisation because you call it democratisation, however big the cheque is. And secrecy does not become consultation because you call it consultation”
Ceferin suggested to the hundreds of club representatives present that Infantino’s behaviour would not be tolerated at one of their organisations. “Imagine one of your senior executives secretly negotiating away control of your club’s crown jewels,” he said. “You didn’t know. Your board didn’t know. Your players and fans didn’t know. And by the time you find out, the deal is almost done. What would your board do?
“Imagine that he creates a peace prize for a political leader, without his own board having any say over its creation or its recipient. Then, that same political leader calls during the biggest competition in the world to complain about a decision on the pitch. The rules say one thing. The phone rings. Then the decision changes.
“How many times would this have to happen at your club before the board says: ‘enough’? I think it is time to say ‘enough’. No office, no title and no amount of power gives anyone the right to sell the future of football.”
The ongoing war of words between football’s biggest governing bodies had already intensified on Tuesday when Fifa accused Uefa of waging a “misinformation campaign” and trying to influence the race for its presidency, urging a US court to reject Uefa’s request to receive documents for use in a planned criminal complaint against Infantino.
Senior figures within Uefa remain adamant that a candidate to oppose Infantino in the Fifa election next March must be sourced before the 18 November deadline for nominations. The EFC chair Nasser al-Khelaifi has been mooted in the past as a future contender but conclusively ruled himself out of the Fifa presidency in the Danish capital.
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“I have zero interest in Fifa, zero agenda or ambition to be there,” Al-Khelaifi said. “I don’t think I’m the right guy for this position. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, having fun. Fifa, not for me.”
Al-Khelaifi has designs on expanding the scope of his own organisation. In his speech to the general assembly he said “now is the time to create World Football Clubs”, explicitly stating that a representative body including those beyond Europe should be formed. “We are more than proud and happy if we can help and contribute outside of Europe for our colleagues from different clubs in the world,” he said later.
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