UEFA, European football's governing body, has declared it no longer has confidence in FIFA's current leadership, following a week of turmoil over a controversial plan to sell minority stakes in World Cup commercial rights to private investors.

The crisis began on Thursday when UEFA voted to boycott FIFA if it did not withdraw its proposal, known as the FIFA Future Enterprise (FFE) plan. Facing widespread backlash from federations, fans, and even heads of state, FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced late Friday that he was scrapping the initiative.

In a strongly worded statement on Saturday, UEFA welcomed the reversal but launched a scathing attack on Infantino's leadership. "We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game," the statement read. "We must identify those responsible and hold them to account."

UEFA also reminded Infantino of his 2016 campaign promises, when he pledged transparency and said FIFA's money belonged to the national associations. "On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent," the statement added.

The European body called for using FIFA's idle funds to support grassroots football across its 211 member associations, but insisted that selling off "the family silver" was not the way to do it. "This is a victory for the whole game," UEFA said, "but it must not be the end of the story. The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun."

The criticism heaps pressure on Infantino ahead of the FIFA presidential election scheduled for March 18. He had been expected to run unopposed for a third term, but the controversy may now invite challengers. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), led by Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who lost to Infantino in 2016, has already called for more transparent and inclusive decision-making in the future.

Sheikh Salman, along with Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi, who sits on both UEFA's executive committee and the FIFA Council, are seen as potential contenders if a challenge to Infantino materializes. The coming weeks will reveal whether the FIFA president can survive this crisis of confidence.

Source: www.aljazeera.com