LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The Football world has been turned upside down in the last couple of days following the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA’s) proposal to sell minority stakes in some of its biggest competitions, in this article Voice of Naija – VONa Communications reviews how CAF can be the turning point whether the proposal will move forward.
FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, offered up to $40 million (£30m) to the world football governing body’s 211 member associations that support his controversial proposal.
Under the proposal, FIFA would create a new commercial subsidiary known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
The FFE would be responsible for managing some of FIFA’s biggest competitions, including the men’s World Cup, the Women’s World Cup and the Club World Cup.
External investors would now be given an opportunity to buy minority stakes in the new company.
Infantino also revealed the plan could generate as much as $10bn (£7.52bn), which he said could be used to increase funding for football development across the world.
After the proposal hit the airwaves the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and its 55-member national associations have threatened to boycott all FIFA Competitions, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and its 41 member associations rejected the proposal while the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also took a stand with UEFA and CONCACAF.
The three federations combined have 143 member nations and according to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s message to FIFA’s 211 Member Associations regarding the proposal to establish FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), the plan would only move forward if majority of its 211 members accept the proposal.
However, the AFC in their statement did not disclose if all their 47 members rejected FIFA’s proposal as UEFA and CONCACAF combined 96 members did.
The AFC in their statement urged “FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework to ensure that proposals of global significance are developed through proper consultation” while adding that “the proposed FFE cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward.”
In the AFC’s statement there was no mention of all its member nations, therefore the decision to prevent the proposal going forward rests with the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Carlos Cordeiro, senior advisor to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, has also resigned with on Friday, July 31 in protest of the proposals calling the plan “a bad deal for football”.
Meanwhile, out of the aforementioned football federations only UEFA has more member nations than the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who has 54 members, but the African confederation is silent regarding the biggest threat to football since Covid-19.
On Wednesday, July 29 CAF released a statement saying “the CAF President, Dr Patrice Motsepe, will host a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee next week, to inter-alia, assess and evaluate the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative”
CAF also asked it’s member nations to review the proposal too and “participate in the consultation process in accordance with CAF and FIFA’s regulations and established procedures.”
CAF’s decision to take time to mull over the decision can spur some of its member nations to readily accept the proposal due to the monetary gain rather than think about what selling a piece of football forever would mean for the sport in the foreseeable future.
FIFA on the other hand has doubled down on the proposal that they are not selling the World Cup and would still retain the rights for the competition while doing all they do now.
However, in no logical world will investors shell out billions of dollars and not get a chance to influence the game, after all there is a saying “Put your money where your mouth is” so nobody would invest in a business if there is no room to increase the profit or tweak some factors in the ‘right’ direction.
Meanwhile other Confederations like the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) have remained silent, they both have 10 and 14 members respectively so their votes might not be enough to tilt the decision, with these in mind, all eyes are on CAF to see if their 54 member nations will reject the FIFA proposal, if they do, the plan will be abandoned and the footballing world will be forever grateful to African football.
