Hoofddorp [Netherlands], August 7 : The players' body, FIFPRO, has issued a statement against president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of "profound abuse of presidential power".
The statement from FIFPRO has insisted that the shelving of 'FIFA Forward Enterprise', which aimed to bring privatisation to the FIFA World Cup, does nothing to end the crisis, saying that it was "conceived in secrecy, negotiated behind closed doors and brought to the brink of agreement before the FIFA Council, the Member Associations, players and football's recognised stakeholders even knew it existed."
The statement from FIFPRO said, "FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) is gone. The abuse of power that produced it is not. Governance reforms, not a cover-up, are urgently needed. The withdrawal of FFE was inevitable. But withdrawing the proposal does not erase what it revealed."
"A plan capable of permanently altering the ownership and governance of the FIFA World Cup, and commercialising the competitions built by generations of players, was conceived in secrecy, negotiated behind closed doors and brought to the brink of agreement before the FIFA Council, the Member Associations, players and football's recognised stakeholders even knew it existed."
"That is not merely a governance failure. It is a profound abuse of presidential power," the statement continued.
FIFPRO said that they have noted the "FIFA's internal update from its meeting in Rabat, Morocco with deep concern."
While apologising to the member associations for the way the FIFA Forward Enterprise matter was handled, FIFA also said that its leadership has unanimously reaffirmed support for President Gianni Infantino, while Infantino also reiterated his confidence in FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom and the administration for their role in delivering the organisation's vision
"Following a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the FIFA Secretary General and members of the FIFA Management Board in attendance reaffirmed their full support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, as the only official elected by the 211 FIFA Member Associations. In turn, the FIFA President reiterated his full support for the FIFA Secretary General and the FIFA Administration for their necessary and outstanding work in the delivery of his vision," FIFA had said.
FIFPRO said that rather than confronting what had happened, "FIFA had reaffirmed support for the organisation's leadership while reducing a fundamental governance and constitutional failure to a matter of "processes and communications" to be "improved"."
The body also said that the fact that FIFA admitted its mistake and said that "everything they had done was in compliance with FIFA regulatory framework" is an "indictment of FIFA's current governance framework".
"A framework that allows a project of this magnitude to be developed behind closed doors and hidden from those it affects until it leaks, is a framework that must be reformed, not defended," added FIFPRO.
FIFPRO also said that they had taken note of FIFA's warning that "they will no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity" and asserted that the "scrutiny of football's governance is not an attack."
"It is the duty of everyone who sustains the game. Any attempt to portray legitimate, good-faith scrutiny as disloyalty will only deepen the concern this episode has caused. And an internal review that reports only to the very Council that was bypassed is no answer at all. Players, their representatives and the professional football stakeholders must be part of it," the statement said.
"No institution can restore confidence in a presidency that has itself dismantled the conditions upon which confidence depends. Trust cannot simply be demanded. Authority cannot merely be asserted. Legitimacy cannot be proclaimed. Each must be earned. Each can be lost," it added.
FIFPRO also said that regardless of how the present crisis surrounding FIFA Forward Enterprises is resolved, "football now requires structural safeguards to ensure these events can never be repeated" and placed the following demands:
-Embedding the Global Social Dialogue Platform as a real, permanent and structural part of FIFA's governance, not a mechanism to be bypassed at will.
-Legally binding engagement with professional football's stakeholders on decisions of major consequence, including the international match calendar, competition expansion and other matters that fundamentally affect the professional game.
-Voting rights for professional football's stakeholders on the FIFA Council, together with a clear and formally recognised role for FIFPRO as the global representative of professional footballers.
-Governance and structural reforms that make it impossible for any individual, ever again, to drive unilateral decisions through the game.
FIFPRO also said that it had written to FIFA administration setting out the demands.
"The letter explains why this episode represents far more than an isolated governance failure. It concerns the exercise of the highest role and office in world football and the manner in which its authority has been used. The letter has been signed jointly by the FIFPRO President and the Presidents of all FIFPRO regional divisions: FIFPRO Africa, FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, FIFPRO Europe, FIFPRO South America and FIFPRO Central & North America," said FIFPRO.
"The withdrawal of FFE prevented an irreversible decision. It did not restore the confidence that made such a proposal possible in the first place. That confidence has now been fundamentally broken. It cannot be rebuilt through carefully drafted statements, internal reviews or promises to improve processes. Nor can it be restored simply by announcing governance and structural reforms that should always have existed."
"These reforms are now indispensable. But they are the responsibility of the future, not an absolution of the past. The players did not create this crisis. They will insist that football emerges from it with stronger institutions, stronger safeguards and leadership worthy of the trust the game demands," the statement concluded.