FIFA president Gianni Infantino scraps controversial World Cup sell-off plan

FIFA said it will not proceed with its proposal to sell a piece of its business empire to outside investors after the project was met with fierce resistance from some of its member associations.

FIFA’s plan was to raise up to US$4.2 billion (S$5.4 billion) by selling about a 20 per cent stake in a new unit that would run FIFA events including the World Cup, valuing it at US$20 billion.

The proposal, first announced on July 29, was strongly opposed by many regional confederations, including European football body UEFA, which threatened a boycott and accused FIFA of putting the sport’s “soul” up for sale.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement late on July 31.

“Our purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

UEFA on Aug 1 welcomed FIFA’s decision to abandon plans to sell a stake in the World Cup and said that it would work with partners and stakeholders to make sure such moves cannot be expedited without consultation in the future.

“UEFA welcomes FIFA’s decision to withdraw its plan to sell a stake in its competitions – including the World Cup – into private hands,” the body said in a statement.

“In the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”

The statement added: “The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family.”

“This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun.”

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa also stressed the need to discuss all such moves with transparency in the future.

In a letter posted on the AFC’s website, he said he expects “any initiative that has the potential to impact global football will be presented and discussed with the confederations, the FIFA council, member associations and other stakeholders in a timely, transparent and meaningful manner”.

“The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game,” he said.

Opposition to FIFA’s plan had mounted earlier on July 31, after Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned with immediate effect in protest.

The New York Post, citing four sources, also reported that FIFA’s plan had collapsed after an open revolt by football officials around the world.

Cordeiro, who was appointed in 2021 by Infantino to help shape FIFA’s future, said the body was “mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification”.

“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 said in a statement.

A former banker and former US Soccer Federation vice-president, he added that he had no involvement in the proposal and opposed it “unequivocally”.

Meanwhile, FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by Infantino, describing the proposal as the “project of one person”.

“Our mission... is to serve football. Not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service,” Lamour wrote in a statement shared with the Associated Press.

Despite the growing opposition, Switzerland-based FIFA had initially stuck to its guns, saying that “incorrect media reports” this week had disrupted its planned consultation process but that it would press on with putting the proposal in front of its 211 national football associations.

“We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA (member association) has the ability to express its vote based on facts,” it said in a statement on July 30.

FIFA had proposed creating a US$20 billion subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run the World Cup and its other events, with a stake of up to 20 per cent to be offered to external investors.

Thrive Eternal – a fund run by Thrive Capital, which was founded by Joshua Kushner – was expected to lead the proposed investor group, FIFA said. He is the brother of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Trump, however, said he did not speak with Infantino about FIFA offering stakes to external investors despite he and Infantino having a close relationship after the US co-hosted the recently concluded World Cup.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was critical of FIFA’s plan when it was announced earlier this week, told reporters on July 31 that Infantino was “the wrong man to lead the organisation”.

Infantino, 56, is up for re-election in 2027 and North American football chief Victor Montagliani is reportedly looking to challenge him for the FIFA presidency.

UEFA led opposition to FIFA plan

UEFA had led the widespread opposition to the proposal. On July 30, its 55 member nations voted unanimously to boycott all FIFA tournaments, less than two weeks after Spain were crowned World Cup champions.

FIFA’s next major event is the women’s Under-20 World Cup in September. Host Poland said on July 31 that it had not received any information about the potential withdrawal of any team from the tournament.

South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL said on July 31 that it had requested more information from FIFA on the proposal and would continue to analyse it before taking a position.

“We recognise that the development of football requires commercial and financial decisions. However, such decisions must always serve football and never take precedence over its very essence,” CONMEBOL said in a statement.

CONCACAF, the regional federation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, rejected the proposal during a meeting on July 30 but the 41-member body did not follow UEFA with a boycott threat.

AFC, which has 47 members, had issued a statement on July 31 saying it “stands in solidarity” with UEFA and CONCACAF, but also stopped short of threatening a boycott.

AFC, which has not historically been as frequent or vehement a critic of FIFA as its European counterpart UEFA, questioned the viability of the proposal and raised doubts about FIFA’s decision-making processes in a thinly veiled attack on Infantino.

‘Football is not for sale’

Stuart Dykes, director of European and institutional affairs at Football Supporters Europe, said such decisions could not be taken behind closed doors by a small group of people.

“The national associations should be demanding proper governance, proper consultation, proper stakeholder involvement,” Dykes told Reuters.

“Football is not for sale. It’s a social good. Its value is created by the fans and the players... That value is not for FIFA to extract in the interest of private investors.”

Infantino had said in a letter to all member associations that they would receive US$40 million each if they agreed to FIFA’s proposal by Sept 19.

On July 31, FIFA said it would not go ahead with the plan without the support of the majority of its member associations.

“These principles underpin the FFE proposal: unprecedented development funding, truly global ownership of the commercial opportunities of our sport, and full self-determination through a democratic process for all MAs,” FIFA said.

UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC together have 143 associations, well over half of FIFA’s 211 members. REUTERS