Uefa have formed a rare but fragile united front against Fifa in battle for football’s future | Nick Ames and Matt Hughes

It was a phrase not always heard when Europe’s football associations discuss a pressing issue. “Touchingly unanimous,” was the assessment of a senior Uefa executive within moments of Thursday afternoon’s seismic decision to boycott Fifa tournaments unless Gianni Infantino scraps his private investment plan. United fronts on this scale are vanishingly rare and there is now a narrow window in which to make it count.Fifa doubled down on its proposal overnight with “clarifications”, which blamed the media for disrupting the “consultation process” of a scheme that had been constructed under cloak and dagger. There was no suggestion that it will shift from its 19 September deadline to effectively ram the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal through. Anyone would be forgiven for asking what the rush is but Uefa and its allies must not allow the next seven weeks to drag.The European stance is a triumph for Uefa and its president, Aleksander Ceferin, whose eventful reign may have reached a high. Associates often cast the Slovenian as a “no bullshit” operator and tough rhetoric has been matched with action in facing down Infantino. But neither Ceferin nor his entourage will be preparing a victory march. Events will move rapidly now and it is essential the accord between Uefa’s 55 members holds firm.Infantino and his emissaries will be probing for weaknesses. It took an intensive lobbying effort to ensure Uefa could gather behind a common cause. One mid-sized federation, tempted by the riches Fifa have dangled, was brought into line after that country’s biggest club was deployed to talk the FA president around. A smaller nation was left surprised when two others, who it had believed shared its interest in Infantino’s offer, changed tack late on. Another had hoped for more time in Thursday’s two-hour meeting to air its view.None of this is unusual; it is simply politics. European football has plenty of internecine struggles to resolve when left to its own devices. It was no small achievement to emerge from the meeting with sources at all levels proclaiming unity. Only 48 hours had passed since news of Fifa’s plan broke and, particularly after looking through a hurriedly dispatched sales deck that many found insulting, everyone could at least agree they had been crudely sidelined by global football’s governing body.There was astonishment at Fifa’s timing given the Folarin Balogun affair, a mere three weeks previously, had sharpened appetites within Uefa to oppose Infantino. A number of western European FAs are understood to have been mobilising their peers ever since Donald Trump revealed he had repeatedly called Infantino asking him to overturn the USA striker’s suspension for their tie against Belgium. Balogun was ultimately handed a reprieve.While only the German and Norwegian FAs publicly backed Belgium’s subsequent complaints, others including the English FA were involved in discussions behind the scenes. “Balogun was the moment everything changed,” a European FA chief told the Guardian. “We have been working together since then, and this week has accelerated matters.”Spain celebrate after their World Cup triumph this month. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Richard Sellers/Apl/SportsphotoThey will need to quicken further if Infantino is to be deposed or, as a minimum, his investment plan scuppered. The less economically fortunate could yet be seduced if Fifa are given the oxygen of time. Some countries privately note the irony of bigger states seeking their support when it has not always been forthcoming in the other direction. Perhaps more money can be rustled up for waverers.Uefa are encouraged by positive discussions with individual states in Asia, many of whom have expressed dissatisfaction with Infantino. It felt a significant intervention when, on Friday morning, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said in a strong statement that it believes “the proposed FFE cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward”.There is also evidence of a widespread loss of confidence in Infantino within Concacaf, the North and Central American confederation. But both Concacaf and the AFC have stopped short of Uefa’s threatened boycott; their public pronouncements have focused on serious concerns over governance, a lack of consultation and the expedited timeline, rather than the substance of Fifa’s proposals. Concacaf did, however, point to Fifa’s $4bn cash reserves as a ready source of added funding.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhat next? Anyone hoping an unprecedented level of opposition may force Infantino to resign is likely to be kept waiting. There are parallels with his previous attempt to alter the structure of world football five years ago, when he proposed the World Cup should become a biennial event. Uefa killed that scheme off but Infantino emerged from the wreckage with his position enhanced. Less than 12 months later he had secured support to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.If Fifa’s mid-September cutoff looms like a before-and-after moment for the global sport, the de facto deadline may lie two weeks sooner. The Under-20 women’s World Cup begins on 5 September and, as things stand, it would be the first test of resolve for those promising a boycott. It is in all parties’ interests, not to mention those of players caught in the middle, to find a clear resolution by then.Infantino’s opponents would have the numbers to call an Fifa extraordinary congress, where a no-confidence vote could be triggered. Only 43 countries would have to formally request that step. But sources close to Uefa have cautioned that this would be hard to organise, not least because Fifa can wait as long as three months before convening such an event. An extraordinary congress is already scheduled for 23 November, when the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cup hosts will be rubber-stamped.Meanwhile rumblings within Europe regarding a potential candidate to rival Infantino at next year’s election grow louder. Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Paris Saint-Germain president and chair of European Football Clubs, has proponents but has given no suggestion he is willing to run, even if history shows the Qatari has a pattern of taking key roles with apparent reluctance. Any serious contender would realistically need the backing of Europe and at least one of its fellow confederations but there are more immediate priorities at hand.Those involve harnessing the momentum Uefa has built, quickly stopping Infantino’s project and preventing football from plunging into terminal disarray. Nobody involved can rest on their laurels. As one FA president put it after Ceferin’s rallying effort: “The game has started now.”