{"id":793366,"date":"2026-07-30T13:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793366\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:13:11","slug":"afc-president-doubles-down-on-fifa-calling-world-cup-plan-unacceptable-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793366\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC president doubles down on FIFA, calling World Cup plan \u2018unacceptable\u2019 | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asian Football Confederation chief slams lack of consultation over plan to sell FIFA World Cup stakes and says it undermines sport\u2019s continental structure.<\/p>\n

Published On 30 Jul 202630 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Asian Football Confederation \u200c(AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has branded FIFA\u2019s lack of consultation over its plan \u2060to sell stakes in \u2060the World Cup to private investors \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d, saying the move undermined the sport\u2019s existing continental structure.<\/p>\n

The Bahraini\u2019s unusually forthright comments were made in a letter sent on Thursday to \u2060the regional body\u2019s 47 member associations, which was seen by the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

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FIFA on Tuesday said it planned to create a $20bn commercial subsidiary<\/a> to run the World Cup and its other events, drawing \u2060criticism from regional confederations, including the AFC, which said they were blindsided by the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFC notes with great concern and disappointment that it was not consulted by FIFA at any level prior to the public announcement of this proposal,\u201d Sheikh Salman wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd nor has it received any detailed governance, financial or legal \u200canalysis of the proposal and its potential repercussions, which is totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, the AFC is deeply concerned that FIFA\u2019s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football, which are based on solidarity, cooperation and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kuala Lumpur-based AFC is one of FIFA\u2019s six confederations and is responsible for running regional club and national team competitions across a vast expanse that encompasses continental Asia, the Middle East and Australia.<\/p>\n

The Bahraini said the proposal would not succeed without the support of \u2060all of the confederations.<\/p>\n

\"SheikhSheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, FIFA senior vice president and president of the Asian Football Confederation, looks on as FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaks during the 76th FIFA Congress 2026 [Bob Frid\/EPA]<\/p>\n

Sheikh Salman called for FIFA President Gianni Infantino\u2019s proposal \u2060to be \u201cthoroughly examined and discussed through the appropriate legal and governance channels\u201d and questioned the tight timeline given to member associations to approve the plan.<\/p>\n

Infantino said in a letter to all 211 football associations this week that they would receive $40m each \u2060if they agreed to FIFA\u2019s proposal by September 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFC is also surprised that the current timeline allows an extremely limited period for consideration of \u2060a proposal of such significance, when such decisions should never be \u2060rushed,\u201d wrote Sheikh Salman.<\/p>\n

He asked the confederation\u2019s members to avoid making a decision on the proposal until the AFC had engaged in further discussions with FIFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFC kindly requests all [member associations] to await the outcome of these consultations and the completion of the \u200cnecessary review processes before reaching any position regarding the proposal,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assure you that the AFC remains fully committed to working constructively with all [member associations], FIFA and stakeholders to advance the interests of \u200cfootball \u200cand ensure that the continued growth of the game is built on a foundation of trust, transparency and unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera has asked FIFA for a response to the letter from the AFC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asian Football Confederation chief slams lack of consultation over plan to sell FIFA World Cup stakes and says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1204,399,1205,3,1079,99,21,1209,153412],"class_list":["post-793366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asia-pacific","tag-football","tag-malaysia","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}