FIFA defends WC plan: 'Nobody is selling football'
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- FIFA defended its proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) spinoff Friday, insisting 'nobody is selling football' and blaming 'erroneous reporting in the media' for the backlash, while conceding FFE would not be established without approval from its 211 member associations.
- UEFA and its 55 member nations agreed Thursday to boycott all FIFA competitions, declaring 'some things are simply too important to sell,' just weeks before the Women's Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland starts Sept. 5.
- Concacaf (41 members) rejected the plan, citing 'lack of due process,' an 'artificially short deadline,' and questioning the need for outside investment 'following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history'; the Asian Football Confederation echoed that rejection and called for an 'urgent review' of FIFA's governance.
- The FFE would be a $20 billion subsidiary 20% owned by private investors, whose core backer is a New York firm created by Joshua Kushner — brother of President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner — with a mid-September deadline for member associations to accept doubled funding of $20 million each, projecting $86 million per member through 2038 versus $36 million previously.
- Carlos Cordeiro, senior FIFA adviser and former US Soccer president who represented FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned Friday in protest of Infantino's plan.
Why it matters: With UEFA (55 nations), Concacaf (41), and the AFC all rejecting the FFE proposal, three of FIFA's largest confederations stand opposed — making the mid-September acceptance deadline for 211 members increasingly difficult to meet. A senior adviser's resignation and a European boycott threat arrive just weeks before FIFA's next scheduled tournament in Poland, raising immediate operational and reputational stakes.
