UEFA have said they have lost "confidence" in Gianni Infantino as the FIFA President announced that the world governing body have scrapped plans to sell stakes in a World Cup company to private investors.
Infantino announced this overnight, confirming that FIFA "will not proceed" with the plans, after they were rejected by three football confederations, while UEFA stated that they would boycott all FIFA competitions including the World Cup until the proposals were scrapped.
The plans were also met with opposition by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which was another blow to FIFA's much maligned plan, having been already rejected by UEFA and CONCACAF.
The pressure on Infantino continues to mount following the resignation of his senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, who called FIFA's plans, "a bad deal for football".
"Football has been central to my life and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away. That is why this proposal should be rejected", he said in a statement.
Now, UEFA have released a statement, saying that they have lost confidence in Gianni Infantino's leadership.
While they have welcomed FIFA's decision to scrap these plans, the organisation have said that Infantino has lost the trust of many involved in the world of football through his conduct.
"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. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account," UEFA said.
"It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close co-operation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again", they added.
"That review should be thorough and fundamental. No option should be off the table. The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family".
They had previously accused FIFA of putting football's "soul" up for sale with these plans.
Under these plans, FIFA would have brought private investment into the World Cup and other tournaments, with the world soccer governing body stating that it had planned to create a $20 billion (€17 billion) subsidiary to run the World Cup and other competitions, and would provide external investors with stakes of up to 20 percent.
It would see FIFA establish a FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to oversee commercial and event operations.
The plan had previously been backed publicly by Infantino, with a reported investor led by Thrive Eternal, whose founder is Josh Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, son in law of US President, Donald Trump.
However, according to the PA News agency, US President, Donald Trump insisted that he did not speak to Mr Infantino about these hugely controversial plans, despite the connection between them and his son in law's brother.
Mr Trump was asked about this while hosting a cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat in Camp David last Friday.
"No, I never spoke to him", Trump said to reporters.
Gianni Infantino has had controversial dealings with US President Donald Trump. Source: Shutterstock.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has already drawn controversial over previous dealings with President Trump.
During the World Cup, Donald Trump had revealed that he had personally asked Infantino to "review" a red card shown to United States striker, Florin Balogun against Bosnia & Herzegovina. Following this, Balogun's one match suspension was suspended for the USA's last 16 clash with Belgium, in an unprecedented move at a World Cup.
Belgium ultimately won the game 4-1. While celebrating their final goal, the players appeared to mock President Trump by copying his viral "dancing", while the official X account for the Belgian Red Devils aimed a jibe at FIFA and Trump with the caption "Overturn this", along with some photos of their team celebrating their goals against the USA.
Last year, Mr Trump was also awarded the inaugural Peace Prize by FIFA.
