Three confederations addressed FIFA with an open letter

2026-08-10 12:53 © CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA

The FIFA conflict with other confederations continues to spread.

On Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF, and CAF addressed FIFA with an open letter, demanding specific actions regarding the ongoing situation.

"Football is the greatest passion that unites the world. It does not belong to any individual or institution.

It belongs to the players, fans, clubs, federations, and every institution entrusted with ensuring its future. It is in this spirit that, as confederations representing our members, we speak with one voice today.

Growth achieved over the past decade has been real. However, this has never been the merit of a single individual. It has been the collective work of FIFA, confederations, member associations, and thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to this game.

Expanded tournaments, the granting of hosting rights for the FIFA World Cups in 2030 and 2034, resource allocation to federations. These were joint achievements agreed upon together and implemented through collective efforts.

This is not about money. Confederations have already urged the responsible allocation of FIFA's substantial existing reserves to further strengthen investments in the development of member federations.

It is also not about any member federation losing deserved support, despite frightening statements directed at our members attempting to instill the opposite. It is not about reconsidering the expansion of competitions, the granting of World Cup hosting rights, or other jointly accepted decisions. These decisions were made collectively, and they must remain in force.

We are talking about something fundamental: the integrity of the game and the integrity of those elected to lead it. Leadership in football is not ownership. It is not the possession of power – or the claim to possess it. It is a duty to serve the football family that entrusts that power to you.

When trust is violated through deception, when an individual elevates themselves above the community that has entrusted them with power, that duty is abandoned.

Recently, in a letter to its vice presidents and 211 member federations, FIFA acknowledged that mistakes were made in the process. This is viewed as a communication failure, although the football world has witnessed a decision-making error. A proposal put forth in a rushed manner, without meaningful consultations and pushed towards a deadline before member federations had a chance to adequately review its terms, is not merely a result of negligence – it is a deliberate design intended to limit critical evaluation.

It has not been acknowledged that the proposal itself was fundamentally flawed. It is still not recognized that the attempt to sell the rights to the FIFA World Cup was a serious evaluative error – not just a procedural error, but a fundamental breach of trust regarding the very institutions that FIFA is supposed to serve.

FIFA has also committed to providing a comprehensive report on these events to the FIFA Council, once again failing to recognize that appropriate governance in such a serious decision-making error case would require such an investigation to be conducted by a fully independent third party, rather than FIFA itself, its employees, or any other stakeholder in football. The FIFA administration should not play any role in conducting this investigation.

As stated in previous writings, all relevant documents and records must be preserved in accordance with UEFA's notice on document retention.

The FIFA letter also confirms that only one elected representative attended the leadership meeting in Morocco. Neither members of the FIFA Council nor member federations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of senior employees hired by FIFA, attended the meeting.

This recently held meeting, to which only a selected group of FIFA management committee members was invited abroad – rather than the full committee – instead of having the leadership go to Zurich and address the very heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these doubts and shows a continuation of the same behavioral pattern that has brought us to this moment. This is not the behavior of a guardian of football, but of one who believes that football is responsible to them. Where accountability should prevail, silence reigns.

These are not characteristics that football deserves from its leadership. That is why we have taken this position: not frivolously or alone, but together, guided by our duty to the football for which we serve.

The strength of football has always been its unity. We now urge respect for that unity and the pursuit of leadership that serves football, rather than seeks to control it,” the letter signed by the heads of the confederations reads.