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The controversial plan by Fifa to spin out a new commercial entity and sell a stake to investors has prompted a fierce backlash from lawmakers, including Britain’s new prime minister, fan groups and European football’s governing body Uefa.
On Tuesday, Fifa announced it would form a new company, dubbed Fifa Forward Enterprise, and seek to sell a roughly 20 per cent stake that values it at about $20bn. Talks are already advanced with Thrive Eternal, an investment vehicle run by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared.
The aim is to capitalise on the commercial success of the recent men’s World Cup, which helped football’s global governing body generate at least $13bn in revenue during the four-year cycle ending this year.
However, the proposal, first reported in the FT, sparked immediate anger, with Andy Burnham, who took over as UK prime minister this month, saying the game “does not belong to investors”.
“The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out,” Burnham, a keen football fan, said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said the investment plan was further evidence of Fifa seeking to curry favour with the Trump family. Fifa president Gianni Infantino gave the US president a new “Fifa peace prize” in December, while the governing body has also leased office space in New York’s Trump Tower.
“Now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors,” they said.
Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, had already written to Infantino calling on him to give testimony and provide documents related to Fifa’s ties to the Trump administration.
Uefa, which runs the game in Europe, said Fifa’s plan “crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross”.
“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,” Uefa said on Tuesday.
Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group representing fans, also hit out at the plan and demanded Infantino step down. The group had been highly critical of Fifa’s approach to ticketing at the recent World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, where prices were significantly higher than in previous tournaments.
“The World Cup is not for sale. Enough of this charade,” Football Supporters Europe said in a statement. “[Fifa] member associations — and everyone who cares about the future of the game – must stand up to the man who wants to sell world football.”
Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter, who stepped down in the wake of a corruption and bribery scandal in 2015, was another who weighed in against the proposals.
“The close relationship between the Fifa president and the US president has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football. No one has the right to sell our game,” he said.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Infantino said the plan was “about the democratisation of football worldwide”, and that the money raised would be “invested heavily even in the smallest or most remote parts of the footballing world”.
The proposals involve increasing the money available for football development over the next four years to $10bn from the current $4bn.
Fifa’s 211 member associations, which range in size from India and China to Gibraltar and the island of Montserrat, are all treated equally.
The funds raised from a stake sale would be used in part to increase annual payments to members, who vote on key decisions, from $2mn a year to $5mn. Each would also receive a one-off payment of $20mn.
“Every Fifa member association should have an opportunity to seek a fair share of the available funding to shape its own future, deciding for itself rather than relying on others,” Infantino said.
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