FIFA, Gianni Infantino scrap plan to sell investment stake in World Cup

FIFA is not moving forward with a controversial plan to allow private investors to purchase a stake in the World Cup, according to a statement from FIFA president Gianni Infantino released by the organization on Friday.

In the statement, FIFA said that "this proposal will not proceed" after pushback from member organizations and other stakeholders.

"The FIFA Forward Enterprise project was intended to provide a basis for further strengthening our FIFA Member Associations and our sport worldwide, especially in those countries where support is most needed. And more so, as we said from the outset, to do this only if a majority of the FIFA Member Associations were in support and always subject to a consultation process with them, the FIFA Council, the Confederations and wider stakeholders," the statement read.

"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."

Reports about the proposal, in which Infantino planned to sell private investment stakes in the World Cup, emerged earlier this week. Joshua Kushner, brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, was among the investors reportedly involved through his venture capital firm Thrive Eternal.

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FIFA, which is based in Switzerland, is technically a non-profit organization. However, the proposal would have allowed FIFA to form a for-profit company that would control the World Cup and Club World Cup.

The idea was met with immediate outrage. Half of the confederations — UEFA, Concacaf and AFC — said that they rejected the plan outright, with UEFA saying that it would boycott future events. CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC later said they would confer with their member nations before taking action.

FIFA confirmed the plan with a "clarification" statement on Thursday; the proposed company was set to be called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE). If it had gone through, FIFA's individual member associations would have received a stake in FFE, with the $20 billion raised through the firm being distributed to its members. Infantino was set to reportedly run the company as a commissioner, with a salary worth tens of millions to match.

Even with FIFA's "clarification," the backlash did not stop. On Friday, FIFA advisor (and former U.S. Soccer president) Carlos Cordeiro resigned with a scathing statement against the plan. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter — who resigned from his position in 2015 due to widespread corruption and scandal involving alleged bribes — said Infantino was spoiling the spirit of football with money.

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"If you sell football's crown jewels to private investors, you also sell part of the game – especially its soul. Money matters, but it must never become everything," Blatter wrote in a post on X on Friday.

The 2026 World Cup, which was bigger and more expensive than any previous edition, earned a record $15 billion in revenue for FIFA, and earned Infantino a tremendous amount of goodwill. More than 200 countries quickly endorsed Infantino for another presidential term, though it's unclear whether the immediate backlash for Infantino's plan will put those endorsements in jeopardy.

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This week, Infantino has also doubled down on expanding the World Cup to 64 teams from its current 48, another idea that has been scrutinized as a blatant money-grab.

FIFA's presidential elections take place every four years, with the next election set for May 2027. Infantino has been in office since 2016.

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