FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger, has thrown his support behind the decision to abandon FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s controversial plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup, describing the move as absolutely necessary and beyond question.

The former Arsenal manager, who was appointed to his FIFA role in 2019, has become the latest high profile figure to publicly criticise Infantino’s scheme, joining a growing chorus of disapproval that has engulfed football’s governing body in recent days.

Infantino had proposed selling a 20 per cent stake in the World Cup to private equity investors through a vehicle known as FIFA Forward Enterprise. The plan quickly drew fierce backlash across the sport and was ultimately rejected by three continental confederations, forcing Infantino to abandon the idea altogether.

UEFA had gone as far as threatening to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions if the plan was allowed to proceed, a warning that added significant pressure on the FIFA president to reverse course.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Wenger sought to distance himself from the proposal entirely, explaining that his role at FIFA centres on data analysis, the FIFA online training centre and the development of youth education through sixty academies spread across sixty countries, alongside his work as a technical adviser to IFAB.

He said he had no involvement in the strategic plan and only became aware of it through media reports, before making clear his belief that FIFA needed to remain independent and operate with commitment, transparency and integrity.

Wenger’s intervention followed comments from FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Lamour, who said last week that staff within the organisation had been deceived by Infantino over the proposal. Several European football associations have since withdrawn their backing for Infantino, with the Football Association of Wales confirming its withdrawal of support on Monday, while England’s Football Association is understood to be preparing a similar move. UEFA had already issued a statement welcoming the abandonment of the plan, though it stopped short of restoring full confidence in Infantino’s leadership.

The controversy comes at a delicate moment for the FIFA president, who is set to stand for re-election in March for what would be his final term in office. Infantino will need to secure 106 votes from FIFA’s 211 member associations to win. Beyond national federations, clubs within the European Football Clubs group are also understood to have raised concerns directly with FIFA, worried that the scheme, which was designed to cover Club World Cups, could have disrupted existing agreements between European clubs and FIFA over commercial rights to the competition.

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