"Resign or we will vote to oust you" - Uefa tells Gianni Infantino

GENEVA, Switzerland 

Gianni Infantino is facing an ultimatum from Uefa: resign or face an emergency no-confidence vote.

It is understood all 55 of Uefa’s member nations would opt to oust Infantino in a vote of no-confidence if he refuses to step down. Uefa can trigger such a vote with just 43 member nations.

European football’s governing body announced a loss of confidence on Saturday morning and has demanded change after Infantino was forced to scrap his £15bn plan to sell a stake in the World Cup.

Uefa’s statement followed widespread opposition and a revolt within Fifa’s ranks that staff are calling “kill the monster”.

The Football Association backed Uefa’s stance, saying: “We fully support Uefa’s position. It is time for a full and robust review of Fifa’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently, for the benefit of all 211 member nations and with the long-term stewardship of football at its heart.”

In their statement calling for change at the top of Fifa, Uefa said: “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.

“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. 

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.

“When Gianni Infantino asked for the trust and the votes of Fifa’s member associations to elect him as their president in 2016, he said: ‘Of course we have to be transparent. I have been this in the last 15 years of my life in Uefa. You will have to play a part every day in the life of Fifa,’ before telling the assembled stakeholders, ‘The money of Fifa is your money. It’s not the money of the Fifa president. It’s your money. You are the national associations and the money of Fifa has to serve for the development of football and not for anything else.’

“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.

“And with reserves standing at over $5bn, he has also failed to use associations’ money for the benefit of the game.

“Uefa will begin work immediately with partners and stakeholders all over the world and right across the game to propose a new way of distributing resources through the existing Fifa Forward programme.

“We must start to use some of that money that is sat idle in Fifa’s bank account to deliver the kick start that the grass roots and the wider game need in each of the 211 countries of Fifa. But we don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it.

“This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.”