{"id":470748,"date":"2026-11-10T13:34:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T12:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/11\/10\/ue-e-uefa-insieme-per-un-calcio-etico-firmato-laccordo-che-e-una-critica-alla-fifa-di-infantino\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T15:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:40:31","slug":"eu-and-uefa-join-forces-for-ethical-football-deal-seen-as-a-rebuke-to-infantinos-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/11\/10\/eu-and-uefa-join-forces-for-ethical-football-deal-seen-as-a-rebuke-to-infantinos-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"EU and UEFA join forces for ethical football; deal seen as a rebuke to Infantino’s FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A renewed alliance between the EU and UEFA in support of fair, inclusive, honest, and ethical sport: it is an initiative with political weight that seems like a rebuke of confidence in Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president who came under fire for behaviour that is anything but ethical or proper. The European Commission and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA<\/a>) have signed a cooperation agreement \u2013 the fourth of its kind \u2013 with the stated aim \u201cto promote and strengthen
\nthe \u2018European Sport Model\u2019\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The European sports model, the European Commission points out, is based on values such as solidarity, inclusion, fair play and equality, with fair play being the unwritten sporting ethic of playing fairly and honourably<\/strong>. The signing of the agreement comes in the wake of the controversy that has engulfed FIFA\u2014the organisation that includes all the world\u2019s continental federations, including UEFA\u2014following the decision to lift the suspension of a US national team player for the next match under pressure from US President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The “pardon” shown to the American footballer triggered a backlash against FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whom the European Parliament <\/a>denounced for his opaque and unsportsmanlike conduct. UEFA is said to have identified Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, former Arsenal manager and current Head of Global Football Development at FIFA, as the right person to challenge Infantino for the FIFA presidency on 18 March 2027, the day of the election for the president of world football\u2019s governing body. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement between the European Union and UEFA fits into this context. With UEFA determined to challenge the outgoing FIFA president in a clear show of criticism and a lack of confidence, the EU\u2019s desire to reaffirm that football is based on sound values leads it to censure Infantino\u2019s actions implicitly. <\/p>\n

The Commissioner for Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef<\/strong>, insists: \u201cOur collaboration with UEFA aims to safeguard what makes European football special: solidarity, fair play and a sport that remains open to all.\u201dIt is on the issue of \u2018fair play\u2019 that the divide with Infantino\u2019s FIFA becomes clear.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission and the Federation of European Associations join forces to reaffirm the values of European football. The document was signed while UEFA openly challenges Infantino\u2019s leadership of world football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":470719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25717],"tags":[36593,26136,34741,31129,26053,33394,26138],"class_list":["post-470748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fairplay","tag-fifaone","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-glenn-micallef-en","tag-calcium-en","tag-ue","tag-uefa-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470749,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470748\/revisions\/470749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}