FIFA President Gianni Infantino scraps World Cup privatization plan FAST-MOVING
FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced that the organisation will not proceed with the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, which aimed to create a commercial subsidiary to manage the World Cup and other events and to sell about 20 % of its stake to private investors. The plan was intended to raise up to $4.2 billion and offered each of the 211 member federations a one‑off $40 million payment.
The proposal triggered strong opposition from the three continental confederations UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF, which threatened to boycott FIFA competitions if it continued. Senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest, and chief operating officer Kevin Lamour called the project “a project of one person”. After listening to the feedback, Infantino said the initiative had created divisions that no longer served its original purpose and that FIFA’s purpose remains to unite and improve football. He pledged to reconvene all parties in the coming weeks to discuss future development of the sport.
Entities: AFC · Asian Football Confederation · Asian Football Confederation (AFC) · CONCACAF · Carlos Cordeiro · FIFA · FIFA Forward Enterprise · Gianni Infantino · Morocco · UEFA · Victor Montagliani
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 14 SOURCES] The FIFA presidential election will be held in March 2027 in Morocco. (report)
- [● 7 SOURCES] UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin is not planning to run for FIFA president. (multiple articles)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Several continental football confederations publicly opposed Infantino's marketing plan. (multiple articles)
- [● 14 SOURCES] PSG chairman Nasser Al‑Khelaifi has no ambition to run for FIFA president. (report)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Infantino faced criticism for plans to sell parts of the World Cup marketing rights to private investors. (multiple articles)
- [● 14 SOURCES] Candidate applications for the FIFA presidency can be submitted until mid‑November. (report)
- [● 14 SOURCES] Victor Montagliani, president of Concacaf, is preparing a candidacy against Gianni Infantino. (report)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Gianni Infantino threatened to run for FIFA presidency without a challenger. (multiple articles)
- [● 10 SOURCES] FIFA COO Kevin Lamour described the plan as a “project of one person.” (new)
- [● 8 SOURCES] Asian Football Confederation raised concerns and opposed the investor plan. (multiple)
- [● 13 SOURCES] UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA competitions unless the investor plan was dropped. (new)
- [● 10 SOURCES] The FIFA Forward Enterprise plan aimed to raise up to $4.2 billion and valued the subsidiary at about $20 billion. (new)