The confrontation between FIFA and UEFA is no longer limited to hidden disagreements but has broken out into a full-scale battle to compete for political and economic control of the king sport.
This confrontation stems from the fact that UEFA owns the richest and most quality football background, while FIFA holds global power but is always eager to expand its influence to the club level.
Conflicts of interest and competitive leagues
The financial perspective of world football has long leaned towards Europe. UEFA earns a lot of money thanks to the annual Champions League and the EURO finals every 4 years.
To reduce dependence on the men's World Cup and deeper intervention in club football, FIFA President Gianni Infantino stepped up the expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup to 32 teams.
Infantino is ambitious to turn this tournament into the most prestigious and money-making club title, surpassing even the Champions League.
Despite failing to surpass Real Madrid's 154 million USD bonus in the 2024 Champions League (Chelsea winning the 2025 Club World Cup will receive a maximum of 125 million USD), FIFA's encroachment efforts have made UEFA consider this a serious move affecting their revenue and dominant position.
Conflict over the idea of the league has been underway since 2018, when Infantino wanted to negotiate a $25 billion deal with SoftBank to create new club and national team leagues, including "globalizing" the Nations League - a project initiated by UEFA.
UEFA immediately protested because of concerns that the Champions League would be overpriced and media market share would be torn apart. When FIFA consulted on the idea of organizing the World Cup every 2 years, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin firmly threatened a boycott and joined the Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL) to form an alliance to defeat this proposal.
Shows of "tit-for-tat" and opposing views
The rivalry between the two sides gradually pushed the relationship into a situation where if FIFA chooses "black", UEFA will choose "white".
While FIFA applies a "flexible ticket price" policy pushing prices up at the World Cup, UEFA is committed to freezing ticket costs for EURO 2028.
When FIFA referee Omar Artan was banned from entering the US and Infantino advised everyone to "calm down", UEFA responded by assigning this referee to officiate the European Super Cup match.
FIFA's decision to remove the red card for striker Folarin Balogun of the US team at the World Cup has been angered by UEFA, condemned as "unprecedented, unreasonable and unjustifiable".
At the FIFA Congress in Paraguay, 8 European members led by Ceferin skipped meetings halfway to protest Infantino's 3 hours late arrival due to being busy meeting world leaders such as Donald Trump in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Ceferin herself has also continuously boycotted events organized by FIFA, from the 2023 Women's World Cup final, the World Cup draw to the entire Club World Cup 2025.
Endless
The situation was pushed to a climax when FIFA planned to sell commercial shares (including World Cup rights) to the US private investment fund Thrive.
UEFA immediately threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments, criticizing this as an act of using football to "enrich themselves and their factions". UEFA Vice President Laura McAllister warned that selling football to private funds would catastrophically change the nature of the sport.
While Infantino, in the name of "globalizing" football, shares revenue with 211 member federations and narrowing the gap with Europe through capital flows from Saudi Arabia or the United States, UEFA sees it as just a play of appropriating power and money.
From underground clashes of economic interests, the confrontation between the two most powerful football empires in the world has now turned into an endless all-out war, threatening to crack the root structure of modern football.
