This article has been updated to reflect news developments.
Soccer, and the joy the game brings to billions of people worldwide, isn’t just sport. It’s a sacred public good. That makes FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, the steward of a public trust, one that should be protected passionately.
Instead, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, plans to sell a stake in future World Cup revenues to private ownership. FIFA announced Tuesday that it intends to form a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise that would centralize its biggest events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, and handle “broadcast, sponsorship, licensing, ticketing and hospitality.”
As announced, private investors led by Thrive Capital would buy 21 percent of FIFA Forward Enterprise for $4.2 billion. FIFA would retain a majority stake in the new entity and still regulate the game, including its tournaments, and supervise grass roots development.
For the good of the game, soccer’s regional federations should reject this hyper-commercialized and autocratic vision for the sport by reminding Mr. Infantino that soccer’s soul is not his to sell. I hope my regional colleagues will share my opinion and follow the example set by UEFA, the powerful organization that runs European soccer.
UEFA has threatened to quit all FIFA competitions unless Mr. Infantino backs down. UEFA’s roster includes the current world champion, Spain, along with the former World Cup winners France, Germany, Italy and England. There’s no true World Cup without them. Concacaf, the continental federation that represents North America, Central America and the Caribbean, on Thursday also rejected the plan. On Friday, the Asian Football Confederation added its voice in opposition. Federation leaders across Africa, Oceania and South America should join the team for soccer’s sake.
FIFA has a real obligation to leverage the sport’s commercial value to invest in soccer development worldwide. Every kid from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and from Alabama to Wyoming deserves an opportunity to allow the beautiful game to improve their lives, to teach them teamwork and fair play but not greed. FIFA can do that without Mr. Infantino’s selling a significant piece of the World Cup — its crown jewel — to a private equity firm.
FIFA is hardly strapped. The organization is expected to announce a record haul of $15 billion for the recent World Cup, and the $20 billion valuation of the new commercial venture Mr. Infantino is pitching assumes these numbers will keep increasing. The rising value of broadcast rights makes that an almost certain bet.
Mr. Infantino claims to be a champion of small countries, which lack the organization and budgets of the traditional powers. And yes, many FIFA members are underfunded relative to soccer’s vast wealth; I experienced that when I worked for the St. Kitts and Nevis Football Association. But wouldn’t they benefit more from continuing to have all future World Cup funds flowing back to FIFA, which is legally obligated to reinvest them into the growth of the game? Trading them to private interests for a one-time payout is shortsighted.
Mr. Infantino is so desperate to sell the stakes that he imposed an arbitrary, 53-day deadline on soccer’s regional federations to approve his plan. Why the rush? He could potentially stand to gain a salary in the tens of millions if he takes on the role of commissioner of the new entity after his term-limited FIFA presidency ends, The Times of London reported. (FIFA told the Times of London that such an arrangement had “never been discussed.”) For Thrive Capital’s founder, Josh Kushner, whose brother, Jared, is President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, it’s the World Cup on a silver platter; for Mr. Infantino, it’s a selfish and shameful golden parachute.
Transferring FIFA’s economic epicenter to private equity defies the spirit of soccer as a public good. Despite assurances to the contrary, it could alter decision-making power by granting profit-maximizing private-equity interests undue influence on the sport. And, considering FIFA’s long track record of corruption, creating a more opaque financial structure could be a recipe for mischief.
Mr. Infantino says it’s within FIFA’s rights to accept private investment to advance its public mission. In a way, he’s right; FIFA can do that, just like it was able to charge astronomical prices this summer for World Cup tickets and still find eager buyers. But safeguarding our sport means drawing sensible and ethical distinctions between what FIFA can do and what FIFA should do, a nuance that Mr. Infantino has failed to grasp repeatedly.
The way we got here lays bare another fatal flaw in Mr. Infantino’s leadership: He behaves as if he’s “the king of soccer,” as President Trump described him, who can rule the sport by fiat. According to members of the FIFA Council — its main decision-making group — he kept them in the dark about this project, which would transform FIFA forever, until the news leaked publicly. If this is how he envisions the management of soccer’s future — plans hatched with private investors and relayed later to soccer leaders — then he is not fit to look after our sport.
Mr. Infantino’s disdain for good governance has strained FIFA to a breaking point. He lauds soccer’s democratic values while making further funding for FIFA member federations conditional on their vote, an approach closer to mob extortion than to democracy. To defeat Mr. Infantino’s egotistic and transactional intentions for the sport, federations around the world need to act not only against Mr. Infantino’s vision but also against Mr. Infantino himself.
I strongly believe FIFA can continue to fulfill its mission of developing the sport commercially while respecting the notion that some cultural resources should be preserved for public benefit. We cannot move FIFA forward with a leader whose goal is to sell out soccer for personal gain.
Mr. Goldberg Crenier, formerly the chief soccer officer at Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League now attends Harvard Law School.
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