{"id":910165,"date":"2026-09-29T20:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T20:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910165\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T20:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T20:04:23","slug":"the-emperor-is-naked-uefa-president-ceferin-takes-new-swipe-at-infantino-uefa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910165\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The emperor is naked\u2019: Uefa president Ceferin takes new swipe at Infantino | Uefa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has attacked his embattled Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino<\/a> in a scathing takedown of the failed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and other recent scandals, saying \u201cthe emperor is naked\u201d and declaring \u201cit is time to say \u2018enough\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a pointed address to the European Football Clubs (EFC) general assembly, Ceferin did not mention Infantino by name but made clear his view that Fifa\u2019s leadership must change. He drew on the event\u2019s location, Copenhagen, to make a comparison to Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes in assessing Infantino\u2019s conduct<\/a>, making clear reference to the peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and last summer\u2019s Folarin Balogun affair along with the FFE scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn emperor is persuaded that he is wearing magnificent clothes \u2013 clothes which, he is told, only the foolish or unfit cannot see,\u201d Ceferin said. \u201cHis court goes along with it. Until a child simply says aloud what everyone can see: the emperor is naked. Perhaps the moral of the story is this: convenient words cannot change uncomfortable realities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelling part of football\u2019s future does not become development because you call it development. Putting a fait accompli in front of national associations does not become democratisation because you call it democratisation, however big the cheque is. And secrecy does not become consultation because you call it consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceferin suggested to the \u00adhundreds of club representatives present that \u00adInfantino\u2019s behaviour would not be tolerated at one of their organisations. \u201cImagine one of your senior executives secretly negotiating away control of your club\u2019s crown jewels,\u201d he said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know. Your board didn\u2019t know. Your players and fans didn\u2019t know. And by the time you find out, the deal is almost done. What would your board do?<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine that he creates a peace prize for a political leader, without his own board having any say over its creation or its recipient. Then, that same political leader calls during the biggest competition in the world to complain about a decision on the pitch. The rules say one thing. The phone rings. Then the decision changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times would this have to happen at your club before the board says: \u2018enough\u2019? I think it is time to say \u2018enough\u2019. No office, no title and no amount of power gives anyone the right to sell the future of football.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing war of words between football\u2019s biggest governing bodies had already intensified on Tuesday when Fifa accused Uefa of waging a \u201cmisinformation campaign\u201d and trying to influence the race for its presidency, urging a US court to reject Uefa\u2019s request<\/a> to receive documents for use in a planned criminal complaint against Infantino.<\/p>\n

Senior figures within Uefa remain adamant that a candidate to oppose Infantino in the Fifa<\/a> election next March must be found before the 18\u00a0November deadline for nominations. The EFC chair, Nasser al-Khelaifi, has been mooted in the past as a future contender but conclusively ruled himself out of the Fifa presidency in the Danish capital.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have zero interest in Fifa, zero agenda or ambition to be there,\u201d al-Khelaifi said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m the right guy for this position. I\u2019m enjoying what I\u2019m doing, having fun. Fifa, not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Khelaifi has designs on expanding the scope of his own organisation. In his speech to the general assembly he said \u201cnow is the time to create World Football Clubs\u201d, explicitly stating that a representative body including those beyond Europe should be formed. \u201cWe are more than proud and happy if we can help and contribute outside of Europe for our colleagues from different clubs in the world,\u201d he said later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has attacked his embattled Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino in a scathing takedown of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-910165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}