New Delhi, Aug. 2 -- ZURICH - The FIFA presidential election scheduled for March was a formality three days ago. On Saturday, it ceased to be.

UEFA, the governing body for European football and the sport's most powerful confederation, released a statement saying it had lost confidence in President Gianni Infantino. The statement came one day after his plan to sell commercial stakes in the World Cup collapsed under the weight of opposition from the same body. UEFA's language was institutional and therefore carefully chosen. "The proposal has gone," the statement read. "The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun."

The FIFA Forward Enterprise, a proposed vehicle through which private investors would take minority stakes in th...