{"id":24298,"date":"2026-08-01T15:53:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T10:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24298"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:53:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T10:53:54","slug":"fifa-boss-infantino-scraps-world-cup-sell-off-plans-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24298","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Boss Infantino Scraps World Cup Sell Off Plans After Backlash"},"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 class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter announcing plans earlier this week for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/fifa\/\" id=\"auto-tag_fifa_1\" data-tag=\"fifa\">FIFA<\/a> to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/fifa-world-cup-unit-sale-plan-backlash-kushner-1236658936\/\">sell off a stake in the World Cup<\/a> to private investors, the president of the global <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/soccer\/\" id=\"auto-tag_soccer_1\" data-tag=\"soccer\">soccer<\/a> governing body, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/gianni-infantino\/\" id=\"auto-tag_gianni-infantino_1\" data-tag=\"gianni-infantino\">Gianni Infantino<\/a>, has announced he\u2019s pulling those plans. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThe 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,\u201d Infantino said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\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 continued. \u201cOur purpose has always been \u2014 and will always be \u2014 to unite and improve.\u00a0As a result, this proposal will not proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe proposed plan would have consisted of FIFA setting up a new entity, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), that would bundle soccer associated money-making operations while a significant stake would be sold to private investors. 20 percent of the company would have been sold to Thrive Capital, an invest group run by Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/fifa-boss-under-threat-over-world-cup-sell-off-plans-1236660777\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Backlash<\/a> was immediate, with European soccer body UEFA saying on Thursday that if the plan went through, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/europe-boycott-world-cup-fifa-protest-1236660156\/\">it would boycott FIFA events<\/a>, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/world-cup\/\" id=\"auto-tag_world-cup_1\" data-tag=\"world-cup\">World Cup<\/a>. Three of the four semi-finalists of the 2026 men\u2019s World Cup hailed from Europe, including <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/2026-world-cup-winner-spain-defeats-argentina-1236651842\/\">this year\u2019s champion, Spain<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tEarlier this week, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham released a statement online that read, \u201cfootball does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine. The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone\u2019s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tInfantino\u2019s statement continued, \u201cMoving 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.\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>After announcing plans earlier this week for FIFA to\u00a0sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors, the president of the global soccer governing body, Gianni Infantino, has announced he\u2019s pulling those plans. \u201cThe FIFA Forward Enterprise project was intended to provide a basis for further strengthening our FIFA Member Associations and our&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2279281578-e1785546603499.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24298","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\/24298","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=24298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}