The proposal to sell shares in the World Cup by FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is a monumental own goal that can only profit the few and leave the planet’s most watched sporting event forever diminished.
Infantino has proposed creating a subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, to sell minority stakes to private investors. His plan only came to light after a Times of London story prompted confirmation from world football’s governing body. On Tuesday, FIFA announced the partial sale. Infantino reportedly wants to sell a 20 per cent stake to a group of private investors – led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared.
The sell-off, coupled with the Trumpian talent for tainting almost everything it touches, is already ringing alarm bells across the football world.
The recent men’s World Cup has already provided glimpses of a footballing future where money and power is used to profit from and casually crush the hopes and dreams of millions. Trump nonchalantly shattered the spirit of the game with his astonishing political interference to overturn a refereeing decision against an American player, and his visa restrictions and inhospitable treatment of teams deemed to represent US enemies. Meanwhile, Infantino’s acquiescence to the incessant, unprecedented and reviled hydration breaks to harvest advertising dollars and exorbitant ticket prices was the promise of things to come.
Subsequently, UEFA, European football’s governing body, and CONCACAF, the game’s governing body in North America, Central American and the Caribbean rejected Infantino’s sell-off. Even Infantino’s controversial predecessor Sepp Blatter thought it is a bad move. The UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham was also among the critics.
The proposal must be approved by the majority of FIFA’s 211 member associations by September 19. The women’s World Cup will be played in Brazil in 2027, followed by the men’s tournament in Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030.
But the opposition of the two powerhouse blocs suggests the game faces continuing turmoil as South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East members contemplate offers they cannot afford to refuse.
Infantino is dangling a no-strings-attached $44.5 million in extra funding to national associations, including Football Australia, to back his plan for a $28.7 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors.
Such temptation will force Football Australia to choose between idealism and financial reality: as the Herald’s Vince Rugari reports, the code is in commercial turmoil at domestic level, and has just laid off 20 per cent of its workforce before announcing a record $15.3 million loss, which topped the previous record of $8.5 million the year before.
The World Cup is one of those rarest of moments that unites humanity. FIFA’s new mission is to protect the game from marauding commercial forces wanting to charge a premium on selling the game’s soul.
The 2026 World Cup was FIFA’s biggest commercial success yet and highlighted how the game can continue to grow without the need to sell it off to privateers.
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