FIFA President Gianni Infantino abandoned his plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private-equity investors on Saturday, retreating from a proposal that in five days had drawn a boycott vote from every European soccer federation, the resignation of his own senior adviser and a public rebuke from Britain's prime minister.
The reversal, announced from FIFA headquarters in Switzerland, kills the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary that would have raised $4.2 billion from investors led by Thrive Eternal, a venture spearheaded by Joshua Kushner, brother of President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. It also leaves the 56-year-old Infantino, reelected unopposed in Paris in 2019 and in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2023, fighting to keep his job less than eight months before the next presidential vote in Rabat, Morocco.
What FIFA scrapped
The Forward Enterprise vehicle, first disclosed Tuesday by The Times of London, would have housed the not-for-profit body's commercial operations, including the running of tournaments and the sale of broadcasting, sponsorship, tickets and hospitality, and sold a roughly 20 percent stake at a $20 billion equity valuation. FIFA's 211 national member federations, effective owners of the governing body under Swiss law, were offered $20 million each, roughly double the $10 million each federation is already due over the next four years from the World Cup's record $15 billion revenue haul. Payments would have risen to $22 million through 2034 and $24 million through 2038. The deadline to accept was Sept. 19.
The revolt
Opposition arrived first from UEFA, which said Thursday its 55 members would boycott every FIFA competition, including the World Cup, if the sale went ahead. "The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product," the European body said. "It is one of football's greatest sporting legacies," adding that "the World Cup is not for sale." The 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football rejected the plan hours later without threatening a boycott, and the Asian Football Confederation said Friday it stood "in solidarity with UEFA and CONCACAF in expressing serious concerns."
Inside FIFA
The proposal fractured Infantino's own leadership. Carlos Cordeiro, a senior adviser and former Goldman Sachs banker, resigned Friday, saying he could not "stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup." Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer, gave a statement to the Associated Press in defense of colleagues that all but invited Infantino to fire him. Asked at a Cabinet meeting Friday whether the FIFA president had briefed him on the plan, Trump said, "No, I never spoke to him."
Trump ties
The absence of a Trump consultation is notable because Infantino has spent the past two years cultivating the president. Last year the FIFA president awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. During the July tournament, Trump said he personally asked Infantino to review a red card issued to U.S. striker Folarin Balogun in a knockout game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and FIFA overturned the suspension one day before the Belgium match without a detailed explanation. Infantino left the New York area after the July 19 final between Spain and Argentina with letters pledging election support from about 200 of the 211 national federations.
The retreat
"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," Infantino said Saturday. UEFA responded that it had lost confidence in the FIFA president and that "no option should be off the table" as it pursues a full review of the abandoned plan. Infantino's current salary and bonus arrangement exceeds $6 million a year, and FIFA statutes allow him one more four-year term.
The other view
A source close to Thrive Capital told CBS News on Tuesday that criticism tying the firm to the Trump administration was misplaced. "I think the first assumption is that Trump was involved in FFE in any capacity, which is just not accurate," the source said. The sources feeding this account come from center and lean-left outlets, and no conservative or right-leaning coverage was reviewed; public defenses of the underlying economics from FIFA's African bloc, which controls 54 votes, and from CONMEBOL, whose smaller federations stood to double their four-year payouts, had not surfaced by press time. CONMEBOL said only that it would evaluate the proposal "with the rigor it demands."
Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the FIFA presidential race, four months before the March 19 vote in Rabat, where 106 ballots will decide whether Infantino secures a final term. Speculation on a direct challenger has landed on Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaifi and the Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani.