The clock is ticking. If European football's governing body and Fifa cannot reach an agreement before 5 September, the Under-20 Women's World Cup in Poland will open under a Uefa-led boycott — the first of its kind in the sport's history. Uefa has made its position brutally clear: scrapping the controversial privately funded Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme last Friday was not enough. The conditions have not been met, and the boycott threat stands.

The intervention from Uefa is not the only blow landing on Gianni Infantino this week. Fifpro, the global players' union, has condemned what it calls "a profound abuse of presidential power," while Conmebol — the South American confederation that has historically been one of Infantino's most dependable allies — has broken ranks, criticising "repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue." When South America starts pulling away, the political ground beneath a Fifa president shifts dangerously. Infantino attempted to project unity by convening part of Fifa's management board in Rabat, Morocco, where a show of collective support was staged on Wednesday.

But the cracks were visible. Several key figures were notably absent, and it is understood that Arsène Wenger — Fifa's chief of global development — declined his invitation to travel to Morocco, choosing instead to distance himself from the president he had already publicly criticised over the World Cup sell-off plans. Uefa has been precise about what it wants: the sale proposals withdrawn, and a binding guarantee that such attempts to reshape the game without consultation will never be repeated. Wednesday's Rabat declaration, produced by officials whose careers depend on Infantino's favour, satisfies neither condition.