By Daniel Feuerstein | Zurich, SUI | July 31st, 2026
After several days and major complaints from three of the six regional confederations of World Football, FIFA has decided to end its bid to sell off a 20% stake to private investors in the World Cup tournament; in the mind of President Gianni Infantino, it would’ve helped all 211 members to help with some of their financial issues if they asked for the help. After listening to his constituents, Infantino pulled the idea off the table. Now there is peace between the Confederations and the House of Football for the time being
The plan from FIFA for this idea to work
This new idea to sell off 20% of ownership of the World Cup was supposed to help all 211 participating members with financial support. Gianni Infantino proposed to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), earning $20 billion in commercial subsidies and allowing private investors like Joshua Kushner of Thrive Capital to fund the Football Associations across the globe with $40 million each, which means the big nations like England, France, Mexico, the USA will get that piece of the action just as the smaller footballing nations like Curacao, Montserrat, Oman, Luxembourg and so on.
UEFA yelled the loudest
The first confederation that screamed in dissent was UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations). Right away, they put out a statement across all social media platforms and on their website saying they opposed this idea and felt insulted that the great tournament, the World Cup, which had been held since 1930, shouldn’t have any portion of the tournament, or the entire tournament, sold off to the private sector. They were the first ones to take a stand, along with all 55 participating members. There was also a threat of banning themselves from all FIFA tournaments, and without Europe involved in World Cup Qualifying for 2030, the upcoming Women’s World Cup, and youth World Cups.
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously. So should every National Football Association. So should every stakeholder: leagues, clubs, players, supporters, governments and everyone who cares about the future of the game. The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade – especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football; it is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Two more Confederations have joined in to protest
After UEFA made their stance against this idea, two more regional confederations joined with UEFA to share their displeasure at this idea and stood their ground. The Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF joined in and made their thoughts known as well. For CONCACAF, their 41 participating members (Only 35 of the 41 are FIFA participating members, as the remaining six nations only play in CONCACAF tournaments) had an emergency meeting to discuss the situation. After all the shenanigans during the eras of Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb as the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Victor Montagliani era has shown integrity and honesty to improve the region for the last decade.
“CONCACAF is a confederation united by the love of our game, where football comes first. Guided by this philosophy over the past ten years, we have built, from the ground up, an organization founded on service, transparent governance, and the long-term stewardship of football. History has shown FIFA and the football family what happens when the custodians of the game lose sight of these values. With this in mind, CONCACAF today convened a meeting of the presidents of its 41 Member Associations, together with its President, Council members, and its FIFA Council Members, to discuss a proposal developed and presented by the FIFA President to establish ‘FIFA Forward Enterprise’ and sell interests in the FIFA World Cup to private investors.
During the meeting, the membership expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies. In addition, the need for private equity investment to fund new and existing FIFA Forward programs following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in History was questioned. The discussion reinforced the need for greater transparency and proper governance. For these reasons, CONCACAF and its 41 Member Associations have rejected the proposal.
Tasked FIFA Council Members with engaging FIFA to determine how existing vast FIFA reserves could be used to increase FIFA Forward funding for football development across our region; and Tasked FIFA Council Members with instructing the FIFA President to ensure that any matter follows the proper governance processes via staff and FIFA Council, in accordance with the FIFA Statutes. Through these actions, Concacaf reaffirms that football’s future-and its greatest asset-must remain in the hands of our football family.”
FIFA announcing they have pulled the deal off the table
After seeing three of their six confederations reject this new deal, and with UEFA having the strongest voice of protest and threatening to boycott all FIFA events to qualify and participate, FIFA made a statement not to go through with this new idea, which, in their minds, they thought they were helping the smaller members and everyone else to improve on the financial end to help fund projects withing their own nations. At the same time, the small window to accept this venture or not was also forcing their confederations to make a quick decision and not take the time to have the proper discussions to debate the issues.
“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. 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.
Our purpose has always been – and will always be – to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed. Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support.”
What happens with Gianni Infantino now
While there were some issues during the World Cup like the suspension of Folarin Balogun’s one match ban for the Round of 16 Match against Belgium, Infantino’s extreme deadline with no review of the his FIFA Forward Enterprise has now put some serious doubt for his relection as FIFA President. What looked to be Infantino running unopposed, we may have several new candidates that could enter the race and make an attempt to thwart him for another stay. While at the moment no one has stepped up to claim their candidacy to go against Infantino, The grumblings are getting louder across Europe and now possibly within Asia and CONCACAF.
Africa, South America and Oceania has currently stayed out of this and might be observing the situation before anything truly comes into play. Everyone was upset with the mandatory hydration breaks during the World cup and Certain Television Sports Networks used the hydration breaks to run commercials in the United States and possibly a few others around the world. While it sounds like Infantino has somewhat quieted down the protests, it feels like those feelings are still lingering around and Infantino might have lost a major chunk of support for his re-election bid. Until the next FIFA Congress, we will see what happens and before that time, Infantino might have to fly to the headquarters of Asia in Malaysia, CONCACAF in Miami, Florida, and a 2 hour and 35 minute drive from Zurich to Nyon in Switzerland visiting UEFA’s headquarters.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has pulled off the table his FIFA Forward Enterprise plan as it became to controversial with the extreme deadline to accept the proposal.
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