Al-Khelaifi Unveils World Football Clubs Plan Amid FIFA Governance Row
Nasser Al-Khelaifi has announced plans for a new World Football Clubs body, to be formed alongside football’s six continental confederations, as European club leaders intensified their challenge to FIFA’s approach to commercial rights and governance.
New global club body proposed in Copenhagen
Speaking at the EFC General Assembly in Copenhagen, Al-Khelaifi said the proposed organisation would aim to give clubs worldwide a stronger collective role in the game’s decision-making.
“Now is the moment to create World Football Clubs,” he said. “Every club in the world should be represented, should have a voice and should have a better opportunity to succeed.”
The EFC chairman also called for greater openness amid escalating disputes at the top of world football. He said the sport was losing time to avoidable conflicts rather than working to improve the game, adding that football depends on listening, transparency and honesty.
Ceferin targets FIFA leadership and rights proposals
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin used the same gathering to deliver a sharp, if unnamed, criticism of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and recent proposals around the sport’s commercial assets.
Ceferin invoked Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, arguing that agreeable language cannot conceal difficult realities. He recalled the story’s moment when a child voices the truth that the ruler has no clothes.
His remarks focused on concerns over attempts to move commercial rights into a subsidiary company. Ceferin asked delegates to consider how a club would react if a senior executive negotiated away a “crown jewel” without the board, players or supporters knowing.
He also referred to a scenario in which an award is granted to a politician before rules are later changed following a phone call. His message was that sporting power and political influence must not be allowed to put football’s assets beyond proper scrutiny.
How the dispute has developed
- Disagreement grew over commercial-rights arrangements and demands for clearer governance.
- European leaders raised objections to proposals involving the transfer of rights to a subsidiary business.
- Ceferin used the EFC assembly to argue that football must not be sold through opaque decision-making.
- Al-Khelaifi followed by setting out the World Football Clubs proposal as a route to wider club representation.
- The confrontation now heads towards a FIFA presidential election in March, with court cases in the United States also continuing over investment plans.
March vote raises stakes
FIFA has accused UEFA of running a misinformation campaign intended to affect the forthcoming presidential election. The accusation has deepened an already bitter split between FIFA leadership and European football’s senior figures.
Legal challenges in US courts over investment proposals are running in parallel, meaning the battle is no longer confined to public statements and internal meetings. The dispute over control, transparency and commercial value is set to remain central to football’s political agenda.
Key takeaways
- Al-Khelaifi has proposed World Football Clubs, working with all six continental confederations.
- Ceferin has attacked opaque handling of football commercial rights without naming Infantino directly.
- The central fault lines are transparency, control of assets and the role of political influence.
- FIFA’s presidential election in March and ongoing US litigation could further intensify the conflict.
