WORLD players’ union Fifpro has joined the call for an independent review of Fifa’s governance in the wake of the hugely controversial World Cup private investor plan.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino remains under pressure over his handling of the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, under which private investors would take a 20 per cent stake in a company to run commercial aspects of Fifa’s competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cups.

The proposal was abandoned amid rejection from three continental confederations, including European football’s governing body Uefa, which threatened a boycott of Fifa competitions unless the plan was scrapped and assurances given that nothing like it would be attempted ever again.

Uefa said on August 27 that it was dropping the boycott threat but confirmed it was working to put up a credible alternative candidate to run against Infantino for the presidency at next year’s Congress, having “lost confidence” in him. Uefa also called for an independent review of the process followed in relation to the FFE plan.

Fifpro, along with Fifpro Europe, backed that call for a review on Monday “so that no single office can act unilaterally again.”

Fifpro has also called for the formal integration of player, club and league representatives into the Fifa Council’s decision-making function.

On August 5, Fifa pledged a review of the process followed over the FFE proposal, but it has provided no information on who will conduct that review and also appeared to pre-empt the outcome by stating in the same August 5 announcement that “everything that was done was done in full compliance with the Fifa regulatory framework.”

Fifpro published a report on Monday highlighting how football’s value is generated, which it said showed why “the infrastructure underpinning football’s global workforce cannot be treated as a sellable and undervalued asset.”

Fifa said FFE was valued at $20 billion (£14.84bn) in a media release on July 28. Uefa, in legal applications in US courts seeking disclosure of documents related to FFE, said that valuation was “fraudulently off-market.”