FIFA has abandoned its plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to investors after the proposal faced opposition from some of its member associations, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Friday.
The global football governing body had planned to raise $4.2 billion by selling up to a 20 percent stake in FIFA Forward Enterprise, a $20 billion subsidiary created to consolidate FIFA’s commercial and event operations.
Infantino said in a post on X on Friday that the project could proceed only if it had the backing of a majority of the FIFA Member Associations.
“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,” he said.
“Our purpose has always been—and will always be—to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”
