FIFA President Gianni Infantino has scrapped his plan to sell a stake in the World Cup's commercial rights to private equity investors after a revolt spanning every major continental confederation and his own inner circle. The proposal, which would have created a $20 billion subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise and raised $4.2 billion by selling a 20% stake, collapsed on Friday following what Infantino acknowledged were divisions "no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place."
The plan's architecture was straightforward on paper: FIFA would transfer commercial operations for the men's and women's World Cups and Club World Cups into the new entity, with Thrive Capital — the investment firm led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner — anchoring the investor group. J.P. Morgan was tapped to manage the fundraising.
To secure the necessary votes from FIFA's 211 member associations, Infantino offered each federation a one-time $20 million payment if they backed the proposal by a mid-September deadline. Those who declined would receive a fraction of that amount. The strategy relied on financial pressure to override governance concerns, but it backfired almost immediately after The Times of London broke the story on Tuesday.