FIFA lets council see files, dodges UEFA's questions

Transparency, it turns out, comes with conditions at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. The governing body has told council members they can review documents tied to the failed Forward Enterprise scheme, a scheme that reportedly involved plans around World Cup sell-off arrangements. It sounds like progress until you notice what's missing from the other side of the ledger.

UEFA, according to the same Guardian report dated 2 November 2026, submitted more than 50 questions on wider governance issues and scandal-related matters. FIFA's response so far: nothing direct. Document access on one contained, specific scheme is apparently manageable. A broader reckoning with how the organisation is run is apparently not.

A scheme that didn't survive contact with reality

The Forward Enterprise scheme is described in reporting as having failed, though the detail of why it collapsed hasn't been laid out in full. What's clear is that it's significant enough for council members to need sight of the paperwork, and for UEFA to be asking pointed questions about process around it.

That's the kind of detail FIFA would rather hand over in a locked room to people already inside the tent than put in writing to Europe's governing body. Letting council members view documents is not the same as letting UEFA, or the public, understand how the scheme was approved, who signed off on it, or what safeguards failed.

UEFA's patience has limits, even if it won't say so loudly

Mattias Grafström, UEFA's general secretary, is the name attached to this push for answers. Fifty-plus questions is not a polite nudge. It's the kind of list you compile when you've stopped expecting straight answers and started building a paper trail instead.

FIFA, under Gianni Infantino, has spent years positioning itself as the body that fixed the sport's finances and expanded its competitions for the greater good. Selective document access on one failed scheme, while dodging a long list of governance questions, doesn't sit easily alongside that framing. It looks like an organisation managing optics rather than answering for itself.

Why this matters beyond Zurich

Governance fights between FIFA and UEFA rarely make front pages, but they shape who controls the money and the calendar in football. If FIFA can quietly ring-fence scrutiny, offering access on its own terms while leaving the harder questions unanswered, that's a pattern worth watching well beyond this one scheme. The next time Infantino talks about transparency at a congress podium, somebody should bring the list of 50 questions and ask which ones got a reply.