FIFA president Gianni Infantino has withdrawn the controversial proposal to sell stakes in the governing body’s competitions to private investors following widespread opposition from football federations across the world.
Infantino said the plan had “created divisions” that were “no longer in the interest” of its original objective.
The proposal would have seen FIFA create a commercial subsidiary to manage its major tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cups, while allowing external investors to acquire minority stakes. To secure support, FIFA offered each of its 211 member associations $40 million (£30 million).
“Our purpose has always been, and will always be, to unite and improve,” the 56-year-old said in a statement yesterday.
“Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game.”
The proposal, however, faced fierce resistance from football’s continental governing bodies. UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, if the plan went ahead, while Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also rejected it.
Infantino’s senior adviser on global strategy and governance, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned over the proposal, describing it as “a bad deal for football” that would “mortgage football’s future.”
On Friday, FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Lamour, said the organisation’s own administration had been “deceived” over the project.
Despite the growing opposition, FIFA initially insisted that “nobody is selling football” and said it would continue consultations on the proposal.
However, the plan became increasingly difficult to pass after the AFC joined UEFA and Concacaf in opposing it.
Together, the three confederations control 136 of FIFA’s 211 votes, well above the 106 votes required to block the proposal if their members voted along regional lines.
Meanwhile, AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa welcomed Infantino’s decision to withdraw the proposal.
“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.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) had yet to adopt formal positions, while South America’s CONMEBOL said it requested additional information from FIFA on the proposal’s structure, governance and potential impact.
Under the proposal, FIFA planned to establish a new commercial subsidiary known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), with minority, non-controlling stakes offered to outside investors.
Investment bank JP Morgan prepared a 25-page document outlining the proposal, projecting significantly higher revenues that could increase payouts to member associations to about €24 million (£20.5 million) each during the 2035–2039 cycle.
The document described the World Cup as the world’s most widely watched sporting event but argued that FIFA remained “under-monetised.”
FIFA said Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, was expected to lead the proposed investor group for FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)
Trump, commenting on the proposal for the first time yesterday, said he had not discussed the matter with Infantino.