FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been forced to abandon his plan to sell a stake in the commercial operation of the World Cup and other FIFA competitions after football associations across Europe, Asia and North America united against it.
The proposal would have created a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise, valued at approximately $20 billion, into which FIFA intended to place its commercial rights and tournament operations. Private investors would have been allowed to acquire a stake of up to 20%, raising as much as $4.2 billion. FIFA claimed that the money would be reinvested in football development and used to increase payments to its 211 member associations.
The proposed lead investor was, Thrive Eternal, a fund managed by Thrive Capital, which was founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Infantino’s scheme collapsed after UEFA’s 55 member associations unanimously agreed to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions unless the proposal was withdrawn. Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation subsequently joined the opposition. Together, the three confederations represent 143 of FIFA’s 211 national associations, making it virtually impossible for Infantino to obtain the majority required to approve the project.
UEFA welcomed the withdrawal but made it clear that the scandal was not over. It declared that FIFA’s current leadership had lost its confidence and that the process of rebuilding trust in the organisation had only just begun. The English Football Association was previously supportive of Infantino but it has now called for a full review of FIFA’s leadership and governance, while the German, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish associations raised similar concerns about Infantino’s conduct, transparency and decision-making.
The turmoil also spread inside Infantino’s own office. Carlos Cordeiro, one of his most senior advisers, resigned with immediate effect after declaring that he had not participated in the preparation of the proposal and opposed it unequivocally. Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and former president of the United States Soccer Federation, described the scheme as “a bad deal for football”.
Cordeiro questioned why FIFA needed to surrender a permanent share of its most valuable commercial assets to raise $4.2 billion when the organisation already held billions of dollars in reserves, carried no debt and had generated approximately $15 billion during the latest financial cycle. He accused FIFA of risking football’s long-term future for a short-term financial injection whose beneficiaries, governance and oversight had not been adequately explained.
FIFA’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, then launched an even more damaging attack from within the organisation. Lamour said that FIFA employees had been deceived by the lack of openness surrounding the proposal and described it as the project of a single person. His intervention demolished Infantino’s attempt to portray the sell-off as the product of a transparent and collective consultation process.
Infantino eventually announced that the proposal would not proceed because it had created divisions that were no longer compatible with FIFA’s stated objective of uniting football. His humiliating retreat ended the immediate threat of the World Cup being partially placed in private hands, but it did nothing to resolve the governance crisis created by the scheme.
Infantino’s future at FIFA is now uncertain. UEFA has openly withdrawn its confidence in his leadership, while several national associations are demanding accountability and structural reform. The controversy is particularly damaging because it follows his previous failed attempts to introduce a biennial World Cup and to launch new competitions with backing from private investors.
Removing Infantino before the end of his mandate, however, would remain institutionally and politically difficult. He has already announced that he intends to seek another term in 2027, and his opponents would need to rally behind a credible challenger capable of securing a majority among FIFA’s 211 member associations. The deadline for submitting presidential candidacies is 18 November 2026, with the election scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco.
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