Asian confederation chief welcome's FIFA decision to scrap World Cup sell-off plan

Aug 1 : 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 per cent 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, S