This crosses a line – UEFA furious at FIFA’s World Cup private investment plan

By Jamie Gardner, Press Association Chief Sports Reporter

UEFA insists the World Cup is not an “asset to trade” after FIFA confirmed plans to set up a private company to run its competitions.

Football’s world governing body said on Tuesday it was seeking to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which it revealed would be responsible for bringing together the sale of FIFA’s commercial rights with the operational delivery of its tournaments. The creation of the company, FIFA said, was subject to approval from national associations and the FIFA Council.

FIFA said the creation of FFE would lead to a significant increase in football development funding to national associations and bring FIFA’s total planned spending on development to more than 10 billion US dollars over the next four years.

FIFA said, if the proposal was given the green light, the plan was to “carefully select long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests in FFE”. It revealed Thrive Eternal, a company launched in April by Joshua Kushner, the brother of United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would lead the proposed investor group for FFE.

UEFA said in a statement: “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.”

The Times reported FIFA president Gianni Infantino could become the commissioner or chief executive of the new vehicle from 2031. He is seeking re-election as FIFA president next year on a four-year term.

FIFA’s statement did not provide any information on any role for Infantino within FFE, other than to say it would be owned and controlled by FIFA.

The company’s implied valuation was 20bn USD (£15bn).

The vast majority of FIFA’s revenue is generated from the men’s World Cup, with The Guardian reporting earlier this month FIFA is set to announce the tournament in North America generated 15bn USD (£11bn) in income.

FIFA said JP Morgan had been engaged to work alongside it regarding the FFE proposal. FIFA’s release confirming the plans concluded: “Outside investors will have only a minority stake in FFE and will not play any operational role. Equally, they are investing in a subsidiary of FIFA, and not in FIFA itself. For FIFA, nothing changes.”

FIFA said it would retain “exclusive authority” over football governance, competitions, match calendar, and all regulatory and sporting decisions.

Private investors by their nature seek to drive up the value of a company, and an obvious way to achieve that in this case would be to increase the size and frequency of World Cups and Club World Cups. Infantino has already said further discussions will take place on increasing the number of teams involved in the World Cup from 48 to 64 teams.

UEFA’s statement follows on from its president Aleksander Ceferin opting not to attend the World Cup final in protest at a series of governance decisions and actions by FIFA he had not agreed with. Relations between the two bodies are severely strained.

The Football Association was completely unaware of FIFA’s plans until the global governing body released its statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Press Association understands.