Asian confederation chief welcomes FIFA scrapping of plan to sell-off World Cup

Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa on Saturday welcomed FIFA's decision to walk back plans to sell a stake in the World Cup and stressed the need to discuss all such moves with transparency in the future.

FIFA's plan was to raise up to $4.2 billion by selling about a 20% stake to private investors in a new unit that would run FIFA events, including the World Cup.

The proposal, first announced on Tuesday, had faced a storm of opposition from regional confederations, including the AFC, which said they were blindsided by the announcement.

Following the backlash, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said world soccer's governing body had scrapped the plans after listening "carefully to all the views".

In a letter posted on the AFC's website, Sheikh Salman said he expects "any initiative that has the potential to impact global football will be presented and discussed with the Confederations, the FIFA Council, Member Associations and other stakeholders in a timely, transparent and meaningful manner."

"The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game," he said.

On Thursday, Sheikh Salman had said the way the FIFA proposal had been made was "totally unacceptable" in a letter to member associations.

The Kuala Lumpur-based AFC is one of FIFA's six confederations and is responsible for running regional club and national team competitions across continental Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue/Reuters