Scottish FA (SFA) President Mike Mulraney and Chief Executive Ian Maxwell will take part in an emergency UEFA summit called to discuss FIFA plans to sell off stakes in its major competitions to private investors.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has written to FIFA’s 211 member associations promising payments of £30 million each if they support his proposals to create a commercial subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run competitions, including the World Cup, and allow businesses to purchase shares in the organisation.
FIFA claim that the creation of FFE would lead to an increase in football development funding to associations and bring FIFA’s total planned spending on development to more than £7.5bn over the next four years.
Now the subject of a ferocious row, Europe’s governing body UEFA has countered by saying that FIFA has ‘crossed a line’ and accused senior officials of using football to ‘enrich themselves and their friends.’
UEFA’s 55 member countries will now debate the matter at an emergency online meeting on Thursday afternoon, with the nuclear option of a World Cup boycott one of the options on the table.
Despite SFA president Mulraney being elected as chair of FIFA’s Financial Committee, sources say the position will not prevent Hampden office bearers from adopting a strong stance on the issue at today’s meeting.
While Europe accounts for only a quarter of Fifa's 211-country membership, any competition Fifa stages becomes significantly less valuable without European representation and, with condemnation also arriving from the confederations governing Asia and North America, Infantino faces the biggest challenge to his authority so far.
In a statement, UEFA said: "We have learned of Fifa's deadline to associations to support their proposals or have the one-off payout offer withdrawn. This says everything you need to know about this plan.
"But having held discussions with many stakeholders across the game, Uefa knows there is significant and growing opposition to Fifa's scheme.
"Fifa cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends. We can grow the game correctly.
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"It's time to prioritise associations, clubs, leagues, players and fans."
CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and hosted this year's World Cup are equally unhappy, saying: "We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process.
"We share the disappointment of many within our region and the game that this level of detail has been designed and shared publicly before any discussion with the relevant governance bodies and stakeholders has taken place.
"As leaders within football, we are the custodians of the game. Collectively, FIFA, the confederations and every member association have a responsibility to always act in the best interests of the sport."
Infantino will stand for re-election as president at the FIFA Congress next March and, for some smaller federations, the money on offer from the proposals will be multiples of their annual turnover, prompting Spain’s La Liga president Javier Tebas to accuse Infantino of trying to buy votes.
"It doesn't seem like a reform. It seems like an electoral campaign financed with the future of football," Tebas said.
"Development cannot be used to buy votes or silences. The competitions and commercial rights of Fifa are not the personal patrimony of Infantino.
"Whoever mixes politics, discipline, money and power without transparency cannot lead anything.
"Infantino is not the solution to Fifa's governance. He is the problem."
