UEFA suspends FIFA boycott threat but steps up pressure on world body

UEFA said on Thursday it had provisionally suspended plans to withdraw European teams from FIFA competitions after world football's governing body confirmed its controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise project had been permanently abandoned.

Europe's governing body said it had written assurances that the proposal championed by FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, which would have sold a stake in future World Cups to outside investors, had been "irrevocably and permanently withdrawn".

"Having now secured the two assurances it required from FIFA on 30 July, and following consultation with its National Associations, UEFA has therefore agreed to suspend, on a provisional basis, the withdrawal by European teams from FIFA competitions in the coming season," UEFA said.

However, UEFA said the wider governance crisis at FIFA remained unresolved and that European football officials had unanimously mandated the confederation to pursue "every available institutional, political and legal avenue" to secure reforms and restore limits on presidential authority.

The confederation also called for "a genuinely independent external review" of the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, saying: "FIFA cannot investigate itself and expect the football community simply to accept its conclusions."