Many fans hadn’t heard of him until yesterday, but Joshua Kushner could prove to be one of the most significant figures in football’s history.
The 41-year-old, the younger brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is reportedly leading a group of investors who want to take advantage of FIFA’s proposal to take a portion of the organisation private for the first time.
The plan has prompted uproar among fans and among large sections of the football governance ecosystem. The English Football Association, UEFA and CONCACAF have expressed their fury that they were not at the very least consulted before the proposal was made official yesterday.
Having presided over what now will surely be seen as the most controversial World Cup in history, FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to create a new entity within FIFA to house its commercial operations and sell an initial stake of 20 per cent to private investors, raising money at a $20bn valuation.
Kushner’s Thrive Capital are interested in buying the newly created shares in FIFA, which has been a non-profit for all of its 122-year existence and is registered as a charity in Switzerland.
The newly-established sports arm of Thrive Capital, Thrive Eternal, is the vehicle through which Kushner would make his investment in world football’s governing body. Recently, Thrive has welcomed investment from former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Asia’s richest person Mukesh Ambani. Peter Thiel, the controversial billionaire owner of Palantir, was also an early backer of the company.
But while it is easily their highest-tariff play in sports, the would-be investment in FIFA is not Thrive’s first foray into sports, nor will it be their last if Kushner gets his way.
FIFA suitors Thrive Capital want to buy Vegas NBA expansion franchise
Valuations are booming across sport – and the NBA’s trajectory is more dramatic than most.
Mark Walter’s takeover of the Los Angeles Lakers valued the franchise at $10bn, a new record in sport.
But there is a chance that a new benchmark could be set for a team which doesn’t even exist yet: the Vegas-based NBA expansion franchise.
Kushner’s Thrive Eternal are among those interested in the team, which could cost anywhere between $7bn and $10bn.
Other suitors include a consortium led by basketball Hall of Famer turned executive Jerry Colangelo; Bill Foley, the billionaire owner of NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights and Premier League side Bournemouth; and Nancy Walton Laurie, the Walmart heiress.
Even if the FIFA stake is worth less than the potential investment in the Vegas team, however, it will be politically, reputationally and financially far more significant.
The upside of owning a stake in the governing body of the most popular leisure pursuit in human history is enormous.
Inevitably, though, it will come at the expense of fans, for whom social barriers to attending football matches and engaging with the sport other than through a TV or smartphone screen have been erected time and time again by FIFA under Infantino.
For football, this is a reckoning. And Kushner, a complete non-entity in the sport, will be its driving force.
