Infantino faces FIFA revolt over $20B plan
Shafaq News
Opposition to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s proposed $20 billion tournament venture spread inside the governing body on Friday, with Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour accusing its leadership of deceiving employees and senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigning in protest.
Lamour described FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) as the “project of one person” and argued that staff had been misled over plans to bring private investors into the commercial and operational business of the World Cup and other FIFA competitions.
“Our mission is to serve football, not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service,” Lamour wrote in a statement shared with the Associated Press.
Cordeiro, a former US Soccer Federation president and FIFA senior adviser for global strategy and governance, resigned immediately, stating that he had not helped prepare the proposal and opposed it “unequivocally.”
He described the project as “a bad deal” for FIFA’s member associations and football’s long-term future, questioning why the governing body would permanently sell part of its tournament business to raise $4.2 billion despite holding substantial reserves, carrying no debt and generating about $15 billion between 2022 and 2026.
FIFA Defends Tournament Company
FIFA stated that it would continue consulting its 211 member associations and blamed what it described as inaccurate reporting for disrupting the process.
“Nobody is selling football,” the governing body declared, affirming that the project would not proceed without majority support from its members.
Under the proposal, FFE would combine FIFA’s tournament operations and commercial activities in a subsidiary valued at about $20 billion. Private investors could acquire non-controlling stakes totaling up to 20%, generating as much as $4.2 billion, while FIFA would retain control over sporting regulations, competition formats and governance.
Reuters reported that Thrive Eternal, an investment vehicle linked to Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital, was expected to lead the proposed investor group.
FIFA argues that the model would expand football-development funding. Infantino has asked associations to respond by September 19 and offered a package potentially worth up to $40 million per member through increased FIFA Forward allocations and optional one-off project capital.
Confederations Reject the Proposal
UEFA’s 55 associations unanimously rejected FFE and agreed that their national teams would boycott FIFA competitions while the proposal remained active.
Concacaf, which represents 41 associations, also opposed the project, citing inadequate consultation, procedural concerns and the compressed decision-making timetable, but did not join UEFA’s boycott.
The 47-member Asian Football Confederation expressed solidarity with UEFA and Concacaf, questioned whether the plan remained viable without support from three of FIFA’s six confederations and stopped short of announcing a boycott.
The three confederations contain 143 of FIFA’s 211 associations, although each federation retains its own vote and is not automatically bound by its confederation’s position.
