FIFA President Infantino faces global opposition over private investment plans

FIFA President Gianni Infantino was under increasing pressure on Friday as global opposition grew to his controversial private investment plans and one of his senior advisors resigned in protest.

The football world was rocked earlier this week when it was reported that FIFA, the sport's global governing body, was planning to sell a stake in a new commercial subsidiary to private equity investors close to US President Donald Trump, prompting widespread outrage.

European football's governing body, UEFA, quickly condemned the plans with its 55 member associations voting unanimously to boycott future FIFA competitions — including the next men's World Cup in 2030 but potentially starting with the under-20 Women's World Cup on September 5 — were the plans to be implemented.

The Europeans soon received backing from CONCACAF, the regional body representing 41 North American and Caribbean football federations, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) with its 47 members, technically robbing Infantino of majority support among FIFA's 211 member associations (MAs).

FIFA advisor Cordeiro steps down

On Friday, the pressure on FIFA grew even more when Carlos Cordeiro, former head of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) and more recently a senior advisor to both Infantino and President Trump during this year's men's World Cup, resigned in protest at the plans, which he described as a "bad deal for football."

In statement, Cordeiro, 69-year-old former partner at Goldman Sachs, questioned why FIFA needed to seek private equity investment at all given its unprecedented World Cup profits, and criticized a lack of transparancy, oversight and due process surrounding the plans.

"FIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources," he said. "The organization sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt. The FIFA president himself has highlighted the $15 billion in revenue generated [during FIFA's last four-year World Cup cycle] between 2022 and 2026.

"If member associations believe additional investment is needed to develop the game, FIFA already has the financial capacity to provide that support from its existing resources. Against that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football's most valuable asset to raise $4.2 billion makes little sense. It is mortgaging football's future without any compelling justification."

FIFA: 'Nobody is selling football'

Despite the opposition voiced by UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC and individual national associations including the German Football Federation (DFB), FIFA had earlier doubled down on its plans to establish "FIFA Forward Enterprise" (FFE).

The subsidiary, valued by FIFA at around $20 billion (€17.5 billion), would be responsible for FIFA's commercial rights like broadcast, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing contracts for its competitions, including the World Cup, but would sell a non-controling minority stake worth $4.2 billion to private equity investors.

The proposed investor consortium is expected to be led by "Thrive Eternal," a fund run by "Thrive Capital," in turn founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of US ​President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

"Nobody is selling football. ‌This is not something FIFA would ever entertain," FIFA said in statement earlier on Friday, slamming "incorrect media reports" without issuing clarification and what precisely was wrongly reported, and insisting that it would proceed with its "consultation process" — with member associations obliged to make a decision by September 19.

"FIFA [member associations are] now being asked to believe that outside investors are needed to unlock greater value. I do not accept that proposition," said Cordeiro.

"Most troubling of all is the absence of answers to fundamental questions: Why this deal? Why now? What oversight exists? Who benefits? Was there a competitive process? What governance will be in place? What will investors ultimately gain, and at what cost to football?"

UEFA lead FIFA criticism, threaten World Cup boycott

European football's governing body UEFA, which has been at loggerheads with FIFA and Infantino for years and criticized the global body throughout the recent World Cup over expensive ticket prices and the Folarin Balogun red card affair, had come out publicly in opposition to the plan within an hour of it first being reported by the Financial Times and Times on Tuesday.

"No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership," UEFA said in a statement after a unanimous vote by its 55 member associations at a hastily convened emergency meeting on Thursday.

"The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product ... No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale," the statement added.

Meanwhile, political criticism came from new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, a keen football supporter and one of the first European leaders to criticize the FIFA plans earlier in the week,

"My view is strengthening [that] this was an outrageous suggestion," said Burnham on Friday. "The idea that it could even be brought forward, in my view, shows that the FIFA general secretary [Infantino] is the wrong man to lead the organization."

CONCACAF and AFC join opposition

Shortly after, North America's soccer body CONCACAF also unanimously rejected the FIFA plan, though it stopped short of threatening a boycott by its 41 members.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also issued a scathing letter to its 47 member associations and warned the FIFA proposal would never succeed without the support of all six regional blocs.

"While the immediate debate centres on FFE, the AFC considers this issue extends far beyond a single proposal. Rather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA's consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed," read an AFC statement.

"This is not the first occasion where major stakeholders have been confronted with significant initiatives after the direction of travel appears to have already been determined. Such an approach undermines confidence in FIFA's governance framework and diminishes the authority of its statutory bodies."

African body CAF said it would convene an executive committee meeting next week to look into the proposal, saying in a statement:

"CAF is committed to continue consulting and working together with its Member Associations, FIFA, other Football Confederations and stakeholders in support of increasing financial and other resources for the development and growth of football in Africa and worldwide," it said.

CONMEBOL: Funding needed but 'football always comes first'

South America's CONMEBOL, whose president Alejandro Dominguez is seen as a close ally of Infantino, said late on Friday that it had requested "additional information and clarifications from FIFA" on the FFE project.

Unlike its counterparts from Europe, Asia and North America, CONMEBOL and its 10 member associations were considerably more measured in their response to Infantino's plans.

In a statement, the South American federation acknowledged that commercial and financial decisions are needed to develop the sport.

"However, those decisions must always be at the service of football and never take precedence over its essence," a statement said. "Football always comes first."

CONMEBOL president Dominguez recently spoke out in favor of a further expansion of the men's World Cup to 64 teams in 2030 — which would effectively result in all but one South American nations qualifying automatically.

Amid the outrage over the investment plans, the Press Association reported on Friday that FIFA was indeed pursuing precisely such an expansion, with a decision expected by August 14.

Germany: What has the DFB said?

Germany's mass-circulation Bild paper reported that key UEFA officials including German Football Federation (DFB) President Bernd Neuendorf had already discussed the FIFA plans via a video call on Wednesday.

"We must not lose the fans' support, but we are well on the way to squandering that," Neuendorf told public broadcaster ZDF, adding:

"I consider this to be extremely problematic and unacceptable. If UEFA rejects this request [for approval of the plan], then it is dead, because I believe that you won't be able to find any investor who would be willing to go ahead with this project if UEFA is out."

It's not the first time that the DFB has crossed swords with FIFA. At the Qatar World Cup in 2022, Germany's men's team covered their mouths before a game in protest at not being allowed to wear a "One Love" rainbow armband to support LGBT+ rights.

German football also has recent experience of similar private equity investment proposals.

In 2024, the Bundesliga was forced to abandon plans to sell a share of its TV rights to foreign investors due to fan protests that included tennis balls and remote control cars with smoke bombs being thrown onto pitch during matches.

Such actions are commonplace in German football, where the so-called 50+1 ownership model bars single investors owning a majority stake in a club and ensures fans retain more power than elsewhere in the world.