The 56-year-old Swiss had planned to privatize the World Cup and sell part of the commercial rights to investors from Donald Trump’s circle – the family business of Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law.
According to G. Infantino’s plan, a FIFA subsidiary called “FIFA Forward Enterprise” was to be established, which would consolidate commercial rights and tournament organization. More than 50% of this company would be controlled by FIFA, about 20% would be distributed among the 211 FIFA members, and 20-30% sold to private investors. The company’s value was planned to be around 20 billion US dollars.
However, such FIFA plans met huge resistance, primarily from Europe. Initially, UEFA, the organization governing European football, and later the football governing bodies of North America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) and Asia (CAF) rose up and declared they would boycott FIFA-organized tournaments, including the under-20 Women’s World Cup scheduled for September, if G. Infantino’s plan was implemented.
With pressure also coming from some influential FIFA employees, the Swiss finally backed down and abandoned the plan.
Despite this, UEFA officially stated that it can no longer trust the FIFA president.
In a statement released on Saturday, the decision not to implement the plan to sell competitions to private investors was welcomed – calling it a “victory for football.”
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However, the statement also recalled the speech given by the current FIFA president when he became the head of the organization in 2016.
“The current FIFA leadership has lost the trust not only of UEFA but also of a large part of the football family,” the UEFA statement reads. “When Gianni Infantino asked for trust and votes from FIFA members to be elected in the 2016 elections, he said that ‘we must remain transparent.’ At that time, he said: ‘FIFA’s money is also your money. It is not the FIFA president’s money. You are the national association, and FIFA’s money must serve the development of football, not someone else.’
But he failed to keep his promises. The malicious, secretive, and hard-to-understand deal he made and tried to implement was anything but transparent.”
The UEFA statement also says that those responsible for this plan must be identified and held accountable. Furthermore, the European football governing organization urged that together with other confederations, they ensure such cases do not happen again.
This statement is just another obstacle for G. Infantino, who will seek re-election for a fourth term as FIFA president early next year. Although it was previously assumed that, as in 2019 and 2023, the Swiss would face no competition, many doubts are now arising about whether G. Infantino, who has led the world’s most important football organization for a decade, will continue his work at FIFA headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland).
