Soccer-Three Nordic FAs seek EU talks over FIFA governance concerns

The football associations of Finland, Sweden and Denmark have written to European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef seeking a meeting over concerns about governance ‌at FIFA, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. The letter was signed by Finnish FA President Ari Lahti, Denmark's Jesper Moller and Sweden's Simon Astrom, the sources told Reuters.

The approach to Micallef raises the possibility that EU policymakers could become involved in a dispute that ‌has shaken the leadership of the global soccer body. The Swedish FA declined to comment while the Finnish and Danish FAs were not ‌reachable. Reuters has also contacted FIFA for comment on the letter.

The letter followed representations made by Swedish, Danish and Finnish EU parliamentarians to their respective football associations earlier in the summer, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters. Its main purpose was to request a meeting in Brussels between Micallef and the three federation presidents to ⁠discuss recent ​developments at FIFA and broader concerns ⁠over how world football is governed, one of the sources said.

The office of the European Commissioner for Sport told Reuters on Wednesday it had received a letter from ⁠the associations. It was not yet clear whether Micallef would accept the proposed meeting. The federations raised concerns over transparency, consultation and decision-making at FIFA and pointed ​in particular to the now-abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, according to the sources.

The FFE plan envisaged bringing private investors into a ⁠new FIFA commercial entity holding rights linked to competitions including the World Cup, which triggered anger throughout the football world and prompted FIFA President Gianni Infantino's opponents to discuss a ⁠no-confidence ​vote. The Nordic federations believe the prospect of private investors acquiring interests in FIFA competitions and commercial activities, coupled with what they see as insufficient transparency and consultation around the proposal, raises broader questions about control over the future of the global game, the sources said.

The ⁠letter refers to the response to the attempted launch of the European Super League in 2021 as an example of European football authorities ⁠and policymakers coordinating to defend the ⁠existing model of the game, according to the sources. The six Nordic associations — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands — said last month that they had lost confidence in Infantino and called for ‌an independent investigation into ‌the FFE proposal and a broader external review of FIFA governance.