UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC in talks on rival competitions amid FIFA boycott discussions

UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are reported to be holding preliminary discussions about staging rival international tournaments, Bloomberg reported on August 10, 2026, amid talks of a coordinated boycott of FIFA competitions.

The discussions follow a now-abandoned proposal from Gianni Infantino to privatise the commercial rights of the FIFA World Cup by selling 20% to private investors, a plan that leaked and was subsequently withdrawn. The proposal drew a barrage of criticism from several national bodies, prompting UEFA and most of its member nations to withdraw letters of support they had sent to Infantino for his re-election campaign. CONCACAF and the AFC publicly declared their opposition to the privatisation plans, although many member nations within those confederations lent support to Infantino.

An anonymous source told Bloomberg that UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC have begun preliminary talks about organising tournaments that would involve their 142 member associations. Bloomberg’s report said such rival competitions, if realised, would represent the biggest threat to FIFA’s monopoly of football governance since the organisation’s establishment in 1904.

UEFA, described in the report as the most powerful confederation within FIFA, has already announced it will boycott any tournament organised by the global governing body. By contrast, CONCACAF and the AFC have condemned Infantino’s actions but, according to the report, neither confederation has made a formal commitment to join a boycott.

Bloomberg’s coverage noted that the confederations’ talks come after the leaked privatisation proposal was withdrawn and after the significant backlash from national associations. The report further states that the three confederations’ combined membership totals 142, forming the basis for the proposed rival events discussed in the preliminary talks.

If CONCACAF and the AFC were to join UEFA in a boycott, Bloomberg reported the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup could be affected substantially: the tournament could proceed without more than half of FIFA’s 211 member associations participating.

The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup is scheduled to begin on September 5 in Poland and, per the report, is currently set to take place without any European teams participating.