{"id":23978,"date":"2026-08-01T06:16:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23978"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:16:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:16:55","slug":"fifa-president-nixes-idea-to-sell-stakes-in-world-cup-to-private-equity-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23978","title":{"rendered":"FIFA president nixes idea to sell stakes in World Cup to private equity investors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-b07aed\" class=\"body-graf\">The president of World Cup organizer FIFA said Friday he\u2019s nixing a much-criticized plan to sell stakes in soccer\u2019s biggest tournament to private equity investors.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-938634\" class=\"body-graf\">The plan to consolidate FIFA\u2019s commercial and event operations into a new commercial subsidiary valued at $20 billion is off the table, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-28b19b\" class=\"body-graf\">Asia\u2019s soccer body joined European and North American organizations in opposing it this week, with Europe\u2019s soccer body saying it \u201cwill not participate in FIFA competitions\u201d as a result of the plan.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2ff19f\" class=\"body-graf\">FIFA initially responded by saying in a statement that \u201cnobody is selling football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8be618\" class=\"body-graf\">Later on Friday, Infantino said the plan was to strengthen such bodies, not divide world soccer.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii\" id=\"anchor-4201f1\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"1667\" data-original-width=\"2500\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-trump-infantino-vsb-1953-25a7b4.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-trump-infantino-vsb-1953-25a7b4.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-trump-infantino-vsb-1953-25a7b4.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-trump-infantino-vsb-1953-25a7b4.jpg 1x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260731-trump-infantino-vsb-1953-25a7b4.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and FIFA President Gianni Infantino (L) wave during the World Cup at the New York\/New Jersey Stadium.\" height=\"1667\" width=\"2500\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino wave during the award ceremony of the 2026 World Cup final at the New York\/New Jersey Stadium on July 19.<\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">Franck Fife \/ AFP via Getty Images file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-5d9a0d\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cHaving 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,\u201d he said. \u201cOur purpose has always been \u2014 and will always be \u2014 to unite and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c4a5e8\" class=\"body-graf\">The plan, called FIFA Forward Enterprise, inspired Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and officially Infantino\u2019s senior adviser, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cordeiro-infantino-fifa-executive-world-cup-4cff20f6e2dda925e6d5395b56dcf9ab\" target=\"_blank\">to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ae89b0\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cI cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-f037ff\" class=\"body-graf\">Such a move would have provided a one-time payment of $20 million to each FIFA member federation. North America\u2019s CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) rejected it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b78e4b\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">Infantino on Friday said his \u201cintent 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president of World Cup organizer FIFA said Friday he\u2019s nixing a much-criticized plan to sell stakes in soccer\u2019s biggest tournament to private equity investors. The plan to consolidate FIFA\u2019s commercial and event operations into a new commercial subsidiary valued at $20 billion is off the table, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260731-Gianni-Infantino-vsb-1959-4eceb0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}