UEFA announces boycott of future FIFA World Cups over investment plan

Published on 30/07/2026 - 17:24 GMT+2•Updated 17:32

European football governing body UEFA voted on Thursday to boycott future men's and women's World Cups in response to FIFA's plan to allow private investment in its competitions.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting of its 55 member associations, UEFA said the World Cup "cannot be treated as an investment product".

"National associations around the world are now presented with an ultimatum: accept the irreversible capture of football's greatest competitions or bear the consequences," the statement said.

UEFA added that no national team from its member associations would take part in any FIFA competition "for so long as these proposals remain alive", unless FIFA abandons the plan in its entirety and provides binding assurances that it will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.

Boycotts are not new in the history of the World Cup.

England snubbed the first three editions (1930, 1934 and 1938), believing itself superior to the rest of the footballing world.

African countries boycotted the 1966 World Cup by withdrawing from the qualifying competition in protest at FIFA’s allocation of places, while the Soviet Union refused to play a qualifying match against Chile after Augusto Pinochet's military coup, giving up the chance to qualify for the 1974 tournament.