2 min readAug 1, 2026 08:42 AM IST
FIFA has reversed its decision to sell a stake in the World Cup, abandoning the proposal after widespread backlash and a threatened boycott by European nations.
The global governing body had planned to raise $4.2 billion by selling nearly a 20 per cent stake in a new subsidiary that would run FIFA events, including the World Cup, valuing the unit at $20 billion. The proposal, backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, involved creating a semi-private company called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to sell minority, non-controlling stakes to private investors, including the Kushner family. However, the plan drew growing opposition from the moment it was announced on Tuesday.
In a statement released late Friday, Infantino confirmed the proposal “will not proceed.”
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” he said.
The decision follows fierce resistance from UEFA, which threatened to boycott the World Cup entirely. Two senior FIFA officials also criticised the plan, with one resigning in protest and another warning that staff had been misled.
Carlos Cordeiro, who represented FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, stepped down in protest. Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying staff had been deceived by Infantino’s lack of transparency in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.
Boycott threat
UEFA’s 55 member nations had agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions on Thursday to protest the proposal, saying “some things are simply too important to sell.”
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“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” UEFA said. Infantino was a longtime UEFA staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.
Subsequently, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also opposed the plan.
