Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 center
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FIFA has unveiled a plan to sell a minority stake in the commercial and event operations of the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors, a move that has quickly drawn criticism from soccer’s governing bodies in Europe, Asia and the Americas. According to reporting first published by The Times and the Financial Times, and confirmed by FIFA in a Tuesday statement, the organization intends to create a new for-profit subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise, which would take over commercial decisions such as broadcasting rights and sponsorships for the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup. FIFA says it would remain the majority owner of the subsidiary and retain full control over sporting matters, including scheduling, governance and regulatory decisions.
The plan calls for selling roughly a 20% minority stake in the new entity at an implied valuation of $20 billion, aiming to raise about $4.2 billion in 2026. Leading the investor group is Thrive Eternal, a “permanent capital holding” fund created by Thrive Capital’s Joshua Kushner — brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law — which previously bought a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants. FIFA said JPMorgan bankers are advising on the deal. In exchange for approval, each of FIFA’s 211 member associations would reportedly receive $20 million in funding, with annual payments to members continuing to rise through 2038. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has set September 19 as the deadline for member associations to vote on the plan in order to secure that immediate $20 million payout, and a full membership vote is expected in September, requiring majority approval to proceed.
Immediate Pushback from UEFA and Threats of a Boycott
UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said it had no advance knowledge of the plan and moved swiftly to hold an emergency virtual meeting of its members, initially reported for this past week and later confirmed by Agence France-Presse (citing French sports minister Marina Ferrari) as taking place on a Wednesday. Ferrari said European stakeholders needed to present a unified position given the scale of change the plan could bring to the sport. According to Sky News, UEFA is weighing the possibility of boycotting FIFA events, potentially including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as leverage against the proposal.
In a formal statement, UEFA condemned the plan sharply, saying it “crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross” and arguing that the “soul and governance of football are not assets to trade,” particularly given what it called a lack of transparency about who stands to benefit financially. UEFA also noted it was aware FIFA had tied the $20 million payments to a September deadline, saying the fact that member associations stand to lose that money if they don’t approve quickly reveals something troubling about the plan’s design. This friction adds to already strained relations between the two bodies: UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin reportedly boycotted the World Cup final over separate grievances, including FIFA’s handling of a suspended red card involving U.S. striker Folarin Balogun during the tournament, according to Reuters.
How the Coverage Differs
Forbes’ account focuses heavily on the mechanics of the deal and the political fallout, laying out the timeline of reporting (from The Times and Financial Times’ initial scoop to FIFA’s confirmation), the specific deadline pressure Infantino has placed on member federations, and the deepening rift with UEFA, including the boycott threat and the backdrop of Ceferin’s absence from the World Cup final. It also flags that Infantino, who is up for re-election as FIFA president next year, could play a significant personal role in the new venture — a detail that raises questions about his incentives in pushing the plan through.
NPR’s coverage situates the deal within the broader financial and reputational context of FIFA’s 2026 World Cup, noting the tournament was the most lucrative in the organization’s history and that FIFA expects to bring in at least $13 billion over the current four-year cycle, much of it from the men’s World Cup. NPR also emphasizes that FIFA has faced sustained criticism over elevated ticket prices for the 2026 tournament across North America, framing the new investment plan as arriving at a moment when FIFA’s commercial practices are already under scrutiny. NPR includes a direct quote from Infantino defending the plan as a way to spread football’s commercial success more broadly, saying the sport is “an extraordinary engine of human and social development” and that FIFA’s job is to ensure “the rest of football grows with it.”
Why It Matters
The proposal marks an unprecedented shift for FIFA, a nonprofit federation, toward selling equity stakes in its most valuable asset — the World Cup — to private investors with ties to a politically prominent family. If approved, it would introduce private capital and profit motives into an organization that has traditionally controlled its commercial operations directly, raising questions about transparency, long-term control, and how revenue distributed to member federations might be used or influenced. UEFA’s resistance, combined with the tight September deadline and the possibility of a boycott, signals that the plan’s approval is far from assured and that a major confrontation between FIFA and its most powerful regional confederation may be looming before the September vote.
Sources
Featured photo: FIFA via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)