Wales’ national teams will not take part in FIFA competitions while plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors remain on the table, after the Football Association of Wales backed a Europe-wide boycott.
UEFA and all 55 of its member associations, the FAW among them, issued a joint statement rejecting FIFA’s proposal to transfer ownership interests in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors.
The statement, published by the FAW on its own website, is blunt: “The World Cup is not for sale.”
The associations said the tournament “cannot be treated as an investment product”, describing it as one of football’s greatest sporting legacies, built over generations by players, national teams and supporters.
They accused FIFA of conceiving the proposal in secret and bringing it “to the brink of approval” without meaningful consultation, calling it “a profound failure of leadership” and an abdication of FIFA’s duty as custodian of the game.
Associations, the statement said, had been presented with an ultimatum: accept “the irreversible capture of football’s greatest competitions or bear the consequences”, which it described as “governance by intimidation”.
The plan at the centre of the row is FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell equity to outside investors through a newly formed body, the FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would take control of commercial and event operations including future men’s and women’s World Cups.
FIFA has said the scheme would raise up to $4.2 billion this year based on a $20 billion valuation, selling minority, non-controlling stakes to long-term investors, with the investor group expected to be led by Thrive Eternal, the firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Infantino has set a 19 September deadline for associations to accept, with the proposal promising more than $80m to each of FIFA’s 211 members between now and 2037. He has defended the plan as optional for member associations rather than an obligation, calling it “the democratization of football worldwide”.
Europe’s answer is the strongest weapon it holds: no UEFA national teams in any FIFA competition unless the proposal is “abandoned in its entirety” with binding assurances FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.
The statement said the moment investors acquire ownership, football changes forever, with every decision on the calendar and competition formats “no longer driven by what best serves the game, but by what best serves shareholders”.
“No one has the moral authority to sell what they merely hold in trust for the next generation,” it said, concluding that some things “are simply too important to sell”.
The pressure on FIFA is building beyond Europe: Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation have both rejected the proposal, though short of a boycott, and Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro has resigned in protest, saying he could not stand by while FIFA considered selling a stake in the World Cup.
For Wales, the stand-off would keep the men’s, women’s and age-grade sides out of FIFA tournaments for as long as it lasts, with the under-20 and under-17 World Cups approaching and the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil beginning next June.
The FAW’s immediate priority is untouched: Euro 2028, the co-hosting bet its finances are built around, is a UEFA competition.
The statement closes with the line the associations clearly intend to be remembered: “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”
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