The new battle shaking world football

BarcelonaThe intention of FIFA president Gianni Infantino to partially sell the World Cup and the Club World Cup has shaken the football world and caused an avalanche of criticism led by UEFA, the body that regulates European football. If this Tuesday the British newspaper The Times reported that Infantino plans to sell stakes to transform the World Cup and the Club World Cup into a kind of public limited company and thus allow the entry of private investors, this Wednesday he has taken a further step by sending a letter to the 211 federations that make up FIFA explaining how their budgets would be increased.

Infantino's proposal is for a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) to assume all commercial operations, while FIFA would continue to be the global governing body of football and would retain a majority stake in FFE. For this to go ahead, however, it must receive the approval of the majority of the 211 member associations and the FIFA council, made up of 37 members. Infantino, who has already expanded the number of teams for this summer's World Cup and has promised further expansions, has been working behind the scenes for some time to ensure this support.

In a statement issued Tuesday by FIFA, pressured by emerging reports, the organization confirmed that Infantino expects to sell up to 21% of the FFE to private investors, with the aim of obtaining 4.2 billion dollars (about 3.7 billion euros), which would be distributed among its member associations through a new financing line called the FIFA Fast-Forward Programme (FFFP). In other words, Infantino – who is running for re-election in 2027 – wants to secure the support of the federations for his initiative in exchange for offering them more money.

Outright rejection from UEFA

UEFA, on the same Tuesday, was the first to show a clear rejection of the initiative, which has also been joined by several relevant voices in a personal capacity, such as the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham or the European Commissioner for Sport, Glenn Micallef. The 55 federations that make up UEFA will meet urgently this week. The governing body of European football is not at all pleased with FIFA's intention to expand financing to exceed 10 billion dollars through the privatization of competitions to private investors.

The 55 federations that make up UEFA will meet remotely this week to address the issue and decide what measures to take in the face of an initiative on which they assure they have not been consulted. "This crosses a line that no football institution should ever cross. UEFA takes this matter very seriously, as does every national federation. And so does any other stakeholder: leagues, clubs, players, fans, governments and everyone who cares about the future of this sport," the governing body of European football already stated on Tuesday.

"The soul and governance of football are not assets that can be traded, especially when there is no transparency about who benefits economically. None of us owns football. It is not FIFA's role to sell it," UEFA adds in its statement. The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have aligned themselves this Wednesday with UEFA's position. The Spanish, British and French football federations, among others, have also made their rejection of the initiative clear.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham, has been forceful with a message on X: "Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands, week after week, rain or shine. The World Cup is not a product. It is the biggest competition in world sport, and it has never been anyone's to sell. Dress up the deal however you want: the moment you have sold a part of it, you have sold yourselves."

Infantino defends himself against the avalanche of criticism

After the avalanche of criticism throughout Wednesday, Infantino defended himself by assuring that the project "is not an obligation, but an opportunity". "The FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, is actually a proposal, an offer. It is part of a democratic process — a consultation process — and, above all, it is an opportunity, not an obligation. As I have already said, it begins the consultation process. If, and only if, it is approved by the majority of our 211 member associations and by the FIFA Council, it would become a subsidiary owned and controlled by FIFA, which would consolidate FIFA's commercial and event operations. Its function would be to market and organize all FIFA-owned competitions, along with sponsorship, broadcasting, licensing, and new projects for the benefit of FIFA's 211 member associations, further releasing commercial value that has not been exploited until now", he explained.

What does Infantino promise the federations?

If the initiative were to prosper, approximately 20 million dollars (about 17,600,000 euros) would be allocated per federation in exceptional funding for special projects of the new FIFA Fast-Forward (FFFP) program, as well as an additional 20 million dollars through the Forward program for the 2027-2030 period (currently budgeted at around 7 million euros).

With the war already open with UEFA, Infantino sent a letter this Wednesday to the 211 member federations outlining how he would distribute this new chunk of millions. According to this letter, each federation would receive 20 million dollars (about 17,600,000 euros) starting from the cycle that will begin on January 1, 2027. Furthermore, these amounts will increase in each cycle. Thus, they will be 22 million dollars for the 2031-2034 period, 24 million for 2035-2038, and so on.

In addition, each member federation that sells a stake of its quota to the FFE to external investors would earn an additional 20 million dollars starting January 1, 2027. This would mean an injection as early as 2027 of up to 40 million dollars for state football associations, and in a 12-year cycle (which includes the celebration of three World Cups), the final figure would approximate a total injection of nearly 90 million dollars, according to what FIFA explains in the letter. Thus, Infantino wants to convince the federations to vote for his proposal and, of course, to be re-elected as president of the institution.

Donald Trump is also getting in on the act

The international bank JP Morgan has been FIFA's main advisor on this project, and Thrive Eternal, a long-term investment company founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, would be in charge of heading "the investor group". In this way, the design for the partial privatization of the World Cup – both men's and women's – has been elaborated in collaboration with personalities very close to Donald Trump, host of the last World Cup. A further example of the good relations between Trump and Infantino, whom the President of the United States would already like to be the next Secretary-General of the UN, according to The New York Post.