Infantino backtracks on private investments at Fifa

Surrounded by criticism, Fifa boss Gianni Infantino on Saturday abandoned the plan to open the association to private investors, which raised fears of a commodification of football amid suspicions of a conflict of interest.

"After listening carefully to all points of view, it became clear that the project has created divisions (...) which are no longer in the interest of the initial objective", admitted in a press release Gianni Infantino, also weakened after the very recent resignation of his main advisor, Carlos Cordeiro.

“Our goal has always been, and always will be, to unite and progress. The proposal will therefore not be accepted,” announced the leader.

Presented on Tuesday to everyone's surprise, Fifa's plan, which aimed to increase funding for football development to ten billion dollars in the next four years, was strongly criticized in both substance and form.

Gianni Infantino intended to create a company - Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) - open to private investors which would have been responsible for managing the commercial and event activities of the world football body.

Many were worried about seeing the competitions distorted.

UEFA boycott

The idea sparked an outcry, especially from the very powerful UEFA, which brings together 55 European federations and counts seven of the last ten world champions in its ranks. She had threatened Thursday, "unanimously", not to participate in the next Fifa competitions, including the World Cup, if the association did not abandon the project.

Concacaf, made up of 41 federations from North, Central America and the Caribbean, for its part “rejected the proposal”. Its Asian counterpart, the AFC, followed suit on Friday, saying the plan "could not achieve the broad consensus and unity needed to move forward."

The African and Oceanian confederations were less critical, calling on their member associations to "examine" and "evaluate" the project, when the South American Conmebol asked for details, calling for "always placing football above all other interests".

Fifa wanted to raise up to 4.2 billion dollars by selling shares in the FFE to private individuals, who according to it would have remained a minority, up to 20%.

Among the potential investors, critics had spotted the Thrive Eternal investment fund, created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, while Gianni Infantino regularly displayed his closeness to the American president before and during the 2026 World Cup.

If the project had seen the light of day, each of the 211 member federations of Fifa could have received an exceptional envelope of 20 million dollars at the beginning of 2027 and seen its allocation increase over the period 2027-2030 from 8 to 20 million dollars.

AFP

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