Football’s governing bodies for Europe, North and Central America, and Asia have issued a joint statement demanding a full and impartial investigation into FIFA’s private investment plans.

Under FIFA’s proposals, a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) would have been created, with third-party investors allowed to purchase stakes in it. FIFA said that would have increased the funding available to football associations around the world.

However, following widespread backlash, the plans were abandoned.

In FIFA’s latest statement, the organisation criticised what it described as a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine president Gianni Infantino.

But the FIFA chief remains under pressure, with UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC now saying trust has been broken “through deception”.

Dear Football Family,

Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution.

It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the Member Associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future.

It is in that spirit, as confederations representing our members, that we speak collectively today.

The growth of the past decade has been genuine. But that progress was never the work of one individual. It was the result of FIFA, the Confederations, the Member Associations, and the thousands of people who dedicate their lives to the game.

The expanded tournaments, the awarding of the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cups, the distribution of resources to associations — these were shared achievements, agreed together and delivered together.

This is not about money. The Confederations have already called for the responsible distribution of FIFA’s vast existing reserves to further strengthen investment in the development of Member Associations.

Nor is it about any Member Association losing the support it has earned, despite the fearmongering aimed at our membership to suggest otherwise. Nor is it about revisiting the expansion of competitions, World Cup allocations, or any other decisions reached collectively. Those decisions were made together, and they must stand.

This is about something more fundamental: the integrity of the game, and the integrity of those elected to lead it.

Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding — or demanding — power for its own sake. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it.

When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that gave him authority, that duty has been abandoned.

FIFA’s recent letter to its Vice-Presidents and 211 Member Associations acknowledges that mistakes were made in the process. It presents this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment. A proposal advanced on a compressed timeline, without meaningful consultation, and pushed towards a deadline before Member Associations could properly review its terms is not the product of an oversight — it is the product of a design intended to limit scrutiny.

It did not acknowledge that the proposal itself was fundamentally wrong. There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not merely a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.

FIFA has also committed to presenting a full report on these events to the FIFA Council, once again failing to recognise that proper governance in the face of such a profound lack of judgment would require such a review to be conducted by a fully independent third party, not by FIFA itself, its staff, or any stakeholder within football. The FIFA administration should play no role in carrying out the review.

As stated in previous correspondence, all relevant documents and records must be preserved in accordance with UEFA’s communication on preservation of documents.

FIFA’s own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco. No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to take part. Only the management committee, made up of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.

This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the FIFA Management Committee — not the full Committee — were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that has brought us to this point. It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of someone who believes the game is answerable to him.

There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness.

These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this position: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.

Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now, and for leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.

Yours sincerely,

Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa (AFC President)

Victor Montagliani (Concacaf President)

Aleksander Ceferin (UEFA President)

Datuk Seri Windsor John (AFC General Secretary)

Philippe Moggio (Concacaf General Secretary)

Theodore Theodoridis (UEFA General Secretary)