After the energetic rejection of the European Football Union (UEFA) and Concacaf to Gianni Infantino's controversial project to put the organization rights of future football tournaments and world cups to the highest bidder, this Friday Asian football joined the general discontent. The FIFA president's proposal falters definitively.
This happens just after a hell of a Thursday. On that day, the different organizations that maintain an autonomous legal personality, but are affiliated with FIFA, turned their backs on the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project.
The reason for the refusal is overwhelming: there is simply no transparent or clear idea of the objective that Infantino seeks to achieve by wanting to negotiate the organization of his events with external companies and organizations.
For that reason, it was no surprise that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) joined the strong positions of UEFA and Concacaf. The central argument is the absolute lack of clarity in the ideas and concepts of the plan that Infantino will present very soon, with which he intends to convince everyone of the supposed great economic benefits that this multimillion-dollar business will bring.
A bucket of cold water for Zurich
Through its official position, the AFC made it clear that, seeing the unprecedented fractures and divisions that have emerged throughout the football planet, the FFE project has no realistic way of achieving the consensus and unity that is needed to move forward. Basically, the Asian confederation sees the proposal as a dead end.
Of course, the FIFA offices assured that their intention is to move forward with the plan. His defense is that all this fuss and the interruption of consultations were due to “erroneous information” spread by the media.
Furthermore, in Zurich they did not view favorably the unified statements of rejection issued by the Confederations and now they point to a strategy of individual convincing.
FIFA's position is that each federation has the right to vote on its own future in a democratic way, arguing that no large entity can claim to represent the 211 member federations in the world. The mathematics does not add up to Infantino
This position of the Asian Football Confederation generates a tremendous global stir. Especially in these moments where it is assured, unofficially, that Infantino needs to secure the favorable vote of at least 106 of the 211 affiliated federations to avoid political cracks that force him to reverse his project.
For now, the British newspaper The Independent confirmed that the Swiss leader requires a percentage greater than 50 percent of the total vote. Under this scenario, the resounding “no” of Asian football represents a real knockout for their plans.
And this is true despite the fact that the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has come out to clarify things in a very lukewarm manner, declaring that nothing abnormal happened in the meetings and trying to calm the waters so as not to look bad with the head of FIFA.
The reality is that the framework established by UEFA and the other allied confederations puts the vote under a very unflattering outlook for this new business model. In the macro analysis, the rejection of the AFC means a definitive setback.
The Asian entity brings together 46 member federations; If we add the 55 federations that make up UEFA and the 35 that make up Concacaf, we already have 136 federations of the 211 that make up FIFA firmly against the plan. It just doesn't work out for Infantino.
