By Lucy Thomson
July 31 (Reuters) – Non-profit fan network Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has opposed FIFA’s proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup and called for reform in the world soccer body amid widespread criticism of the plan.
UEFA nations have unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments over the proposal and the Asian and North-American confederations expressed solidarity with the European countries, while FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest.
Stuart Dykes, FSE’s director of European and Institutional Affairs, said the fans were also outraged by FIFA’s proposal.
“Football is not for sale. It’s a social good. Its value is created by the fans and the players and everyone else who go to make it such, you know, go to create that value in the first place,” Dykes told Reuters on Friday over Zoom.
“And that value is not for FIFA to extract in the interest of private investors.”
Dykes hit out at the lack of transparency behind an initiative that would have a far-reaching impact on the sport.
“Decisions of this nature… cannot be taken behind closed doors by a small number of people. Many of them aren’t even involved in football. They’re private investors. FIFA has to reform itself,” he said.
Dykes said UEFA had sent out a strong message by getting all 55 European nations to agree on the decision to boycott FIFA competitions.
“I think the whole of the football community stands behind UEFA on this,” he added.
(Reporting by Lucy Thomson; Writing by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
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