Carlos Cordeiro - a senior advisor to FIFA president Gianni Infantino - has resigned in protest at plans to launch a consultation on selling stakes in a World Cup commercial entity to private investors.
In an exclusive statement to Sky News, Cordeiro said: "As a senior advisor to the FIFA president, a former banker, and a lifelong football fan, I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.
"Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally. It is a bad deal for FIFA's Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game."
Cordeiro's resignation came after FIFA, football's global governing body, had released a statement in the early hours of Friday morning insisting "nobody is selling football" amid criticism of its proposals.
However, FIFA stopped short of withdrawing the controversial plan and insisted it would press ahead with the consultation period.
UEFA's 55 member associations said on Thursday they would not participate in any FIFA tournament until the plan was withdrawn. CONCACAF, the confederation representing 41 nations from North and Central America, along with the Caribbean, also made clear its opposition to FIFA's plan, saying it "rejected the proposal".
The Asian Football Confederation, representing 47 Asian nations, joined UEFA and CONCACAF in its opposition and called for "FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance".
That means confederations representing 143 of FIFA's 211 member associations have now opposed the plan.
FIFA's statement said: "We have heard the feedback provided by the respective confederations in relation to the proposed establishment of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) and would like to address the issues that have surfaced since the initial media reporting on Tuesday.
"We respect the feedback and concern aired in public and reaffirm our commitment to an open and democratic consultation.
"Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA has the ability to express its vote based on facts."
The statement continued: "FFE has been proposed solely to ensure that all FIFA Member Associations (MAs) have the opportunity to take meaningful ownership of the commercial opportunity of football in their respective countries, and that this does not come at the cost of either the spirit or the governance of FIFA or football itself.
"Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain."
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has publicly backed the plan, with an investor group led by Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner - the brother of United States President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner - waiting in the wings to secure a minority stake in the new venture.
However, promises of huge returns to national associations if FFE goes ahead could surely not be honoured if the men's and women's World Cups took place without European involvement, even if Infantino could still muster majority support for FFE.
European and world leagues are also opposed to the plans - fearing that commercial imperatives will drive FIFA to hold bigger and more frequent tournaments in the future, eating even further into domestic schedules.
UEFA's opposition to the plan, in its words, is "unanimous and unequivocal".
"No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership," European football's governing body stated.
FIFA's statement added that "each MA should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future".
The AFC has been a big supporter of Infantino up to now but its intervention marks a shift, with its statement coming close to asking for Infantino to step down. AFC president Sheikh Salman came second behind Infantino in the FIFA presidential election in 2016.
A statement said: "The AFC believes this moment must become a catalyst for strengthening institutional reform. While every FIFA MA must have the opportunity to consider and determine proposals affecting the future of world football, meaningful democracy is not measured solely by the opportunity to vote. It begins with transparent governance, timely consultation, informed deliberation and genuine participation throughout the decision-making process.
"Accordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework to ensure that proposals of global significance are developed through proper consultation, meaningful engagement and appropriate oversight by FIFA's statutory bodies."
'Infantino is in a hole and he needs to stop digging
Analysis from Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol:
"It is a desperate, tone-deaf statement that was issued in the middle of the night from FIFA's Zurich bunker. It's very interesting that it doesn't mention their president by name.
"The way I read this is that this is a statement from Gianni Infantino; it's not necessarily a FIFA statement. How many people inside FIFA actually agree with what he is doing?
"He's in a hole and he needs to stop digging. He needs to start reading the room. He needs to start accepting the fact his power is starting to ebb away and he needs to start by apologising to football, to football fans all around the world - and he also needs to start apologising and explain himself to the confederations and the presidents of the 211 member associations.
"And he needs to stop blaming the media. What is this crazy obsession he's got? He seems to have picked it up from President Donald Trump, where he thinks it's a good idea to keep lashing out at the media. He seems to somehow think that is going to help him.
"The reporting that has been done this week, which was led by The Times and the Financial Times has been completely and utterly accurate. And if it wasn't for this reporting, there wouldn't be this furore that we have now and we wouldn't know the facts we know now.
"I suggest Infantino needs to change course. He needs to wake up and fully understand the mess he has created for himself and he needs to start saying sorry because I think that's the only way he's going to be able to save himself."
Is there a way out for Infantino?
Analysis from Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol:
"Infantino has been in plenty of tight spots and he has managed to extricate from them. But I think he's in big, big trouble now. I think this is the biggest crisis he's faced - and it's all of his own making.
"The best way for him to survive, he seems to think, is to pretend this is all just a democratic process, what's happening now is just a consultation, the 211 FAs can decide whether to go ahead with this plan, and if they don't, no problem at all, it's all been a storm in a teacup.
"Other people, I think, would advise him to come out and say sorry, then lie low for a while, maybe ride it out and maybe he could be re-elected as FIFA president unopposed next March, but that doesn't seem to be what he's doing.
"I'm not sure he can carry on down this road of blaming the media and carrying on with the consultation process. I'm not sure he understands the strength of feeling against him - not just over this, but over lots of things he's done since he's been FIFA president."
