UEFA reportedly still poised to boycott World Cup after FIFA's Gianni Infantino withdrew investment plan, apologized

FIFA issued a statement following a crisis meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, admitting that “mistakes were made” with the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, a much-maligned and now-scrapped plan to sell minority stakes in the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors. That said, the statement also relayed that the senior leadership attending that meeting in Rabat “reaffirmed their full support” for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who has been under fire because of the attempted scheme , which, notably, could have earned him a significant sum of money. And, so, despite Infantino’s apology, UEFA reportedly isn’t budging on the head-turning threat it issued after news broke of the investment ploy. UEFA — European soccer’s governing body, responsible for five of the past six men's World Cups — is still poised to boycott all FIFA competitions , including the World Cup. "UEFA's associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non-participation in FIFA competitions," UEFA said in a statement on Thursday to ESPN and The Athletic . "First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.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. In addition, UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino's presidency. That position holds. "Yesterday's announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favor) agree with him changes nothing." In FIFA’s Wednesday statement, the organization conceded that “mistakes” were made in the FFE process, and that “the process should have been handled differently,” so as to not make the FIFA Council and member associations feel excluded. Plus, the statement mentioned that errors were made once reports of the proposal surfaced in the media. “In a separate letter to the FIFA Council and FIFA Member Associations, an apology was made for these errors together with a commitment to ensure they do not happen again,” the statement reads. Later, though, FIFA stressed that, even though it fell short, “everything that was done was done in full compliance with the FIFA regulatory framework.” UEFA doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the language FIFA used in a statement that centered more around a flubbed process than a pledge to avoid opening its governance or competitions to private ownership. In its latest statement, UEFA alluded to what it said Saturday . At the time, it ripped into Infantino, describing his investment strategy as a “shabby, back room, opaque deal.” “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family,” UEFA wrote five days ago. Infantino faced staunch blowback regarding his strategy. All six of the continental confederations weighed in, albeit in varying degrees . Like UEFA, Concacaf hasn’t held back punches, expressing serious qualms about the whole situation. The confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean followed in UEFA’s footsteps on Saturday, releasing its own statement that questioned Infantino’s ability to pilot FIFA. "A proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident," the Concacaf statement read . "It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first. This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behavior. A comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative.”