UK PM Burnham calls on FIFA's Infantino to resign over World Cup stake plan

Full text

LONDON — British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Friday that Gianni Infantino should quit as president as FIFA over his plans to sell a stake in the World Cup.

Burnham became the first leader of a major nation to call for Infantino to step down after the highly critical reception to the FIFA boss’s bid to create a commercial entity and sell a stake to outsider investors.

Burnham, a lifelong Everton fan, told reporters Friday: “My view is strengthening — this was an outrageous suggestion.

“The idea that it could even be brought forward, in my view, shows that the FIFA [president] is the wrong man to lead the organization.”

In response to being told FIFA is plowing ahead with its plan despite widespread opposition, including from European football body UEFA, the PM said: “Oh wow. Have they actually done that? Oh wow.”

Burnham, who’s long called for the community ownership of football clubs, tweeted earlier this week that “football does not belong to investors” but “the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine.

“The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.”

Infantino is under mounting pressure after UEFA voted unanimously to boycott the World Cup if the plans went ahead. The FIFA president also lost his senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro Friday, who called the proposal a “bad deal for football.”