Paris (France) (AFP) – FIFA said Tuesday it plans to sell a stake in the business operations of the World Cup and its other competitions through the creation of a semi-private subsidiary. World football’s governing body stated it would retain a majority share in FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) but hoped to raise $4.2 billion later this year by “carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests”. FIFA’s statement was a rapid response to a story in British newspapers The Times and The Financial Times based on leaks of the plan from two sources.
The Times reported that FIFA president Gianni Infantino, 56, stood to profit from the scheme by becoming commissioner of the FFE after his expected next term expires in 2031. FIFA denied that this had been discussed. The article also mentioned that discussion had started with financial advisors and potential investors, including Thrive Capital, an investment company founded and led by Joshua Kushner, brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, as well as an arm of JP Morgan Chase, the US bank that attempted to finance the failed breakaway European Super League.
Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s disgraced predecessor, drew attention to the American connection, saying, “The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football. No one has the right to sell our game,” he posted on social media. European football’s governing body UEFA, which has been critical of Infantino, also responded, stating, “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously. The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
The plan would still have to be approved by the 38-member FIFA council and the majority of the MAs. FIFA said it intends to present the plans to the council soon. In its statement, FIFA assured that it “would retain sole control of FFE and exclusive authority over football governance, competitions, match calendar, and all regulatory and sporting decisions”. FIFA indicated it believed FFE would achieve an “initial equity valuation of $20bn”. Each of its 211 member associations (MAs) would be given the chance to take a one-off stake of 20 million dollars in FFE. That represents only 0.1 percent of the total, but would be a significant sum for the leaderships of FIFA’s poorer or smaller members.
“Together with other existing FIFA programmes, these investments could bring FIFA’s total planned development funding to more than $10 billion over the next four years,” FIFA noted. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, an Everton fan, decried the plan, stating on X, “Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine. The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out. Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will.”
In June, ahead of the World Cup, FIFA, which folds competition income into revenue for the whole year, anticipated record revenues exceeding seven billion euros ($8bn) for 2026. This will be the first World Cup with 48 teams. At the start, Infantino mentioned, “we have had discussions about expanding to 64 teams” for 2030. The Times quoted an unnamed “senior football figure” calling the plan “potentially much worse than the European Super League,” as it would impact all levels of football across the globe.
Another anonymous source told the British paper that the plan would create “unacceptable” conflicts of interest for FIFA and Infantino. In 2019, a FIFA stakeholders’ committee rejected an Infantino-backed plan for a $25bn private investment in an expanded Club World Cup, with reported backers including SoftBank of Japan and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. FIFA did expand that competition from seven teams to 32 clubs in 2025. The Times speculated that the creation of FFE could impact the World Cup and the Club World Cup, suggesting it could lead to pressure for both events to be further expanded or played more regularly than the present once every four years.
FIFA has previously found itself in trouble with deals spinning off commercial activities to private partners. Estimates for its losses when ISL, which negotiated World Cup rights deals, went bust in 2001 were anywhere between $30 million and $115 million.
© 2024 AFP
