Uefa warns boycott still possible as FA withdraws support for Infantino after Rabat meeting

Uefa warned European teams could still boycott competitions including the World Cup after the English FA sent a letter withdrawing its support for Fifa president Gianni Infantino following a Fifa executive meeting in Rabat, Morocco on Wednesday. Fifa said mistakes over the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposals were "acknowledged" at the meeting and Infantino apologised, but Uefa said that Fifa's defence of its president "changes nothing".

The dispute centres on Infantino's now-aborted plan to sell stakes in major tournaments via the FFE subsidiary and the offer of $40m (£30m) to each association that backed the proposal, which included potential private investment in the men's and women's World Cups. Uefa has publicly stated it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the FFE proposal a "shabby, back room, opaque deal", and set two conditions it says have not been met: withdrawal of the proposals and "Assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again. These conditions have not been met."

At Wednesday's Rabat meeting Infantino gathered members of the Fifa management board to discuss the episode; those attending included secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, finance chief Thomas Peyer, legal chief Emilio Garcia Silvero, chief of staff Daniel O'Toole, chief of member associations Elkhan Mammadov and media relations director Bryan Swanson. Grafstrom had earlier criticised the FFE proposals in an internal memo, calling them "a sad and reproachable series of events", and after the meeting he and Infantino were pictured seated next to each other and smiling at a Women's Africa Cup of Nations match between Malawi and Zambia.

Fifa told members the mistakes had been "acknowledged" and that it was "not the intention" for the Fifa Council and member associations to "feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently". Uefa responded that its position of no confidence in Infantino "holds" and added that the fact "some people employed by the Fifa president (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing." Fifa has been approached for comment.

Not all confederations have sided with Uefa: Lamin Kaba Bajo, president of the Gambia Football Federation, praised Infantino's "courage" and said he was "willing to give him my support more than ever", while only Jordan has publicly stated it will not vote for his re-election in March. Concacaf issued a public statement after the proposal was aborted but stopped short of saying it had lost confidence in Infantino, and Conmebol said it would not support "any action or procedure that disregards" Fifa's mechanisms before the presidential election.

Kevin Lamour, Fifa's chief operating officer, was not invited to the Rabat meeting and had strongly criticised the FFE plan in public, calling it "the project of one person" and saying "I lose my job, then so be it. At least I'll sleep well tonight." Uefa has said it still wants answers about who was involved in the proposals, whether there was a competitive tender process and whether Infantino stood to benefit personally, and has signalled it will not be content until those questions are addressed or Infantino leaves.

Uefa has kept several options on the table, including forcing an emergency meeting of the Fifa Council — which would require the support of 19 of the 36 confederation and football association heads — triggering a vote of no confidence at an extraordinary congress that would need a majority of Fifa's 211 member associations (106 votes), or seeking a unity candidate to run against Infantino, with Concacaf president Victor Montagliani named in discussion. The confederation also continues to threaten a boycott, a move Uefa says it could deploy to press for accountability.

Uefa's stance will be tested at the Fifa Women's U20 World Cup, which Fifa says kicks off in Poland on 5 September, with six European countries due to take part, including England.