FIFA defends WC plan: 'Nobody is selling football'
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- FIFA defended its proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a $20 billion subsidiary selling 20% stakes to private investors, insisting "nobody is selling football" and blaming "erroneous reporting in the media" for the outcry — while conceding FFE "would not be established" without member approval.
- UEFA announced its 55 member nations will boycott all FIFA competitions after an urgent online meeting Thursday, declaring "the FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will," directly threatening participation in the Women's Under-20 World Cup in Poland starting Sept. 5.
- Concacaf joined the rebellion Thursday, with its 41 member associations citing "artificially short deadline" and "lack of due process" and questioning the need for outside investment "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history."
- Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa sent a letter to the AFC's 46 FIFA members warning of risks to their own competitions and calling FIFA's actions "unilateral," shaking the region long seen as Infantino's reliable voting base.
- Gianni Infantino's offer doubles each of FIFA's 211 member associations' basic funding from $10 million to $20 million over four years, with projected $86 million each through 2038 versus roughly $36 million under current terms — acceptance required by mid-September.
- Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, runs the New York investment firm identified as the plan's core investor for the $20 billion FFE subsidiary — a politically loaded detail buried mid-article.
Why it matters: With UEFA's 55 nations, Concacaf's 41, and the Asian Football Confederation's 46 now openly opposing the FFE proposal, Infantino's path to approval from FIFA's 211 members by mid-September has narrowed sharply. FIFA's own statement conceded the subsidiary "would not be established" without member consent — effectively softening the $20 billion proposal while preserving the doubled $20 million-per-member funding offer as leverage.
