FIFA is not moving forward with a controversial plan to allow private investors to purchase a stake in the World Cup, according to a statement from FIFA president Gianni Infantino released by the organization on Friday.
In the statement, FIFA said that "this proposal will not proceed" after pushback from member organizations and other stakeholders.
"The FIFA Forward Enterprise project was intended to provide a basis for further strengthening our FIFA Member Associations and our sport worldwide, especially in those countries where support is most needed. And more so, as we said from the outset, to do this only if a majority of the FIFA Member Associations were in support and always subject to a consultation process with them, the FIFA Council, the Confederations and wider stakeholders," the statement read."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."
Reports about the proposal, in which Infantino planned to sell private investment stakes in the World Cup, emerged earlier this week. Joshua Kushner, brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, was among the investors reportedly involved through his venture capital firm Thrive Eternal.
The idea was met with immediate outrage. Half of the confederations — UEFA, Concacaf and AFC — said that they rejected the plan outright, with UEFA saying that it would boycott future events. CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC later said they would confer with their member nations before taking action.
FIFA confirmed the plan with a "clarification" statement on Thursday; the proposed company was set to be called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE). If it had gone through, FFE would have controlled the World Cup and Club World Cup, with the organization's individual member associations receiving a stake in the company. The proposal was set to raise a total of $20 billion for FIFA to be distributed to its members.
Infantino was set to reportedly run the company as a commissioner, with a salary worth tens of millions to match.
Even with FIFA's "clarification," the backlash did not stop. On Friday, FIFA advisor (and former U.S. Soccer president) Carlos Cordeiro resigned with a scathing statement against the plan. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter — who resigned from his position in 2015 due to widespread corruption and scandal — spoke out against the proposal.
"If you sell football's crown jewels to private investors, you also sell part of the game – especially its soul. Money matters, but it must never become everything," Blatter wrote in a post on X on Friday.
This story will be updated.
Source: Yahoo Entertainment
