FIFA scraps $20B investment plan after backlash

Shafaq News

FIFA abandoned its proposed $20 billion tournament company after opposition from UEFA, Concacaf, the Asian Football Confederation, and senior officials inside the governing body.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) would not proceed, stating that the project had created divisions incompatible with its original objective.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions,” Infantino explained, adding that FIFA would instead seek broader agreement on expanding football-development funding.

FFE would have placed FIFA’s commercial and tournament operations inside a new subsidiary and sold private investors non-controlling stakes totaling about 20%, raising up to $4.2 billion. FIFA argued that the model would increase development funding for its 211 member associations, but the proposal faced rapid resistance over governance, transparency and private ownership of tournament revenues.

UEFA’s 55 associations unanimously rejected the project and announced that their national teams would boycott FIFA competitions until it was withdrawn. Concacaf also opposed the plan, while the AFC expressed solidarity with the two confederations and called for greater scrutiny.

Inside FIFA, Infantino’s adviser Carlos Cordeiro also resigned, describing the proposal as a poor deal for football, while Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour accused the organization’s leadership of misleading staff over the project.