FIFA has announced plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to investors, but the scheme was immediately criticized by European football’s governing body.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced on July 28 plans to create a subsidiary company called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to maximize revenue through broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticketing, and licensing of merchandise, and seek private investment.
In the FIFA statement, it says that “Subject to these final agreements and required approvals, Thrive Eternal, a permanent capital holding company, is expected to lead the proposed investor group for FFE.”
Thrive Eternal was set up in April by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
FIFA said in a statement that FFE would raise up to $4.2 billion later this year to help its new FIFA Fast Forward Programme “based on an initial equity valuation of $20 billion by carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests.”
“All net benefits of FFE will be reinvested back into football worldwide,” FIFA said.
‘This Crosses a Line’
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” said UEFA, which comprises 55 of the FIFA members.
“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade, especially with zero transparency about who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who replaced Keir Starmer last week, also took to X to state that football does not “belong to investors.”
“It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine,” he said. “The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell.”
The former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, also criticized the deal.
“The close relationship between the FIFA President and the U.S. President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football,” Blatter wrote in a post on X on July 28. “No one has the right to sell our game.”
Glenn Micallef, the European commissioner for intergenerational fairness, Youth, culture, and sport, also criticized FIFA’s plans in a post on X.
‘Corrosive’ Commercialization Criticized
“This isn’t baseball,” Micallef said. “The relentless commercialisation of football [soccer] has become corrosive. It’s threatening the things that made football the world’s most popular sport.”
Micallef said sporting rules were subject to European Union law where they produce economic effects and that the European Commission would be studying FIFA’s proposals carefully.
Infantino’s plans to form FFE to run competitions such as the World Cup and Club World Cup were first reported by The Times of London and the Financial Times.
Infantino is standing for reelection as FIFA president in March 2027, and is widely expected to stay in the post, having gained the endorsement of more than 200 football associations.
Much of his support has been based on his ability—since he took over the top job at FIFA in 2016—to generate large amounts of money for the development of football in Africa, Asia, and South America, where he garners most of his support.
On July 17, Trump and Infantino hailed this year’s World Cup—which was hosted by Mexico, Canada, and the United States and contained 48 teams for the first time—as a success.
Record World Cup Attendances
Total attendance at this year’s World Cup exceeded 6.6 million, surpassing the combined attendance of the 2018 and 2022 editions, which totaled more than 6.4 million, according to FIFA.
Trump said it was “one of the all-time greatest sporting events in history.”
Infantino shrugged off criticism of the decision to overturn a suspension for United States striker Folarin Balogun following Trump’s personal intervention.
In a speech in New York, on the eve of the World Cup final, which was won by Spain, Infantino said he intended to “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has” to make more money.
“As its global governing body, FIFA is responsible for making sure the game reaches every corner of the world, and that the value it creates supports federations and communities everywhere,” Infantino said. “Our next stage of growth needs a structure built for it, one where the commercial side of the game operates as a focused, dedicated business, with its value shared more and better all around the world.”
