Bangladesh, July 31 -- European football has reached for its most powerful weapon.

UEFA's 55 member associations have unanimously threatened to boycott the World Cup and every other FIFA competition if Gianni Infantino presses ahead with plans to sell minority stakes in the governing body's commercial operations to private investors.

It is an extraordinary escalation. A World Cup without England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the rest of Europe would cease to be a credible World Cup in anything but name.

UEFA knows this. FIFA knows it too.

That is why the confrontation has quickly become about something much bigger than one proposed investment deal. It is a struggle over who owns world football, who gov...