{"id":698046,"date":"2026-07-18T07:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698046\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T07:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:37:09","slug":"lib-dems-urge-fa-and-uefa-to-withdraw-from-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698046\/","title":{"rendered":"Lib Dems urge FA and Uefa to withdraw from Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The relationship between Uefa and Fifa has been tense during the World Cup, with the governing bodies clashing over the Folarin Balogun incident and other issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Uefa, Europe’s football governing body, said the decision not to uphold Balogun’s ban<\/a> had “crossed a red line”, branding it “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable”.<\/p>\n

Fifa has faced criticism for the high cost of tickets to watch World Cup matches<\/a> under its dynamic pricing system, and its response to Somali referee Omar Artan being denied entry to the US<\/a> to officiate at the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrats said these examples showed Fifa was “too far gone”.<\/p>\n

Infantino defended ticket costs, arguing they were in line with other US sporting events.<\/p>\n

There are 211 national football associations that are full members of Fifa, which organises the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The English FA is a member of Fifa and if it withdrew from the governing body, England would not be able to compete in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Sir Ed said football associations should work together “to build a clean, transparent governing body that puts fans first”.<\/p>\n

The “only route forward is for the FA, along with other European governing bodies, to lead a co-ordinated exit from Fifa”, he added.<\/p>\n

Infantino has “crossed red line after red line”, Sir Ed says, accusing him of “allowing corporate greed to exploit fans at will, destroying the integrity of the beautiful game”.<\/p>\n

“It is time for Uefa to step up and walk away from Fifa, and start working with other confederations to build a clean, transparent governing body that puts fans first.”<\/p>\n

Football Action Network, a campaign group for football organisations, said there does need to be a debate about Fifa’s future.<\/p>\n

“Nothing should be off the table if the game’s global governing body refuses to reform,” said Niall Couper, chair of the Football Action Network<\/p>\n

Infantino’s presidency of Fifa has been controversial since he was elected to lead the governing body in 2016.<\/p>\n

Supporters argue he has expanded the game and increased funding for member associations.<\/p>\n

Critics say he has centralised power, prioritised commercial growth at the expense of fan experience<\/a>, and weakened governance standards.<\/p>\n

He is widely expected to have enough support from football associations to secure a fourth term as president, extending his tenure until 2031.<\/p>\n

Anna Sabine MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport said Fifa behaves “more like a closed-shop cartel than a neutral global sporting body”.<\/p>\n

She said: “By rubber-stamping a fourth term despite these toxic scandals, football’s governing bodies are showing they are content to sit in rotten squalor rather than strive for something better.<\/p>\n

“Fans deserve transparency and integrity, not another four years of unchecked cronyism,” Sabine added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The relationship between Uefa and Fifa has been tense during the World Cup, with the governing bodies clashing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-698046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}