GENEVA — FIFA president Gianni Infantino set a Sept. 19 deadline on Wednesday for the 211 member federations to accept a one-off $20-million offer to each underwritten by the investment firm of Jared Kushner’s brother as part of a project to sell stakes in the World Cup.
Infantino set out the “singular and unique funding opportunity” in a letter detailing why he wants to create a $20-billion FIFA subsidiary — 20 per cent owned by private investors — that would run the soccer body’s competitions and events like World Cups and Club World Cups.
“It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such game-changing opportunities to you, our members,” Infantino wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.
The proposal revealed Tuesday and backed by Joshua Kushner's investment firm Thrive Capital was met with immediate fury by Infantino’s former colleagues at European soccer body UEFA, which said the World Cup “is not FIFA’s to sell.”
UEFA is expected to call its 55 member federations to an emergency online meeting, likely on Thursday.
Joshua Kushner’s brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.
FIFA’s private equity plan is the latest ambitious project proposed during Infantino’s 11-year presidency in which he has increasingly seemed to be an executive leader acting without consulting with soccer’s major stakeholders. Previous plans include creating a FIFA Peace Prize and trying to reorganize soccer's calendar with World Cups every two years instead of four.
Concerns about the previously secret plan were aired Wednesday by the continental soccer bodies for Asia and the North American region known as Concacaf.
“We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process,” Concacaf said in a statement.
The Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation said it was “disappointed that a matter of such significance entered the public domain before the AFC family had been afforded the opportunity to examine and discuss it.”
Continental bodies that organize their own international club and national-team competitions — such as the Champions League, European Championship and Copa America — likely will see threats to those events from FIFA wanting to increase revenue and value for investors by playing World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women more often.
If the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary is approved by a majority of the 211 members, they also each are promised $20 million in funding from the four-year commercial cycle tied to the men’s 2030 World Cup.
That would lead, Infantinto wrote, to “a pool of diverse international investors” joining Joshua Kushner's Thrive as the anchor investor: “This process will be led by J.P. Morgan.”
If Infantino’s plan is rejected, those members will get their previously promised $10 million over the next four years, his letter stated.
Resistance in Britain
FIFA’s plan met quick opposition from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose government is preparing to support hosting the 2035 Women’s World Cup in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. FIFA is set to confirm that lone bid for 2035 at an online meeting in November.
“Football does not belong to investors,” Burnham, a longtime soccer fan, said in a video message on Instagram. “Once you have sold a piece of (the World Cup), you have sold out. Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will.”
Resistance by British lawmakers — including threats of legislation by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021 — previously helped stop the divisive European Super League project that was an existential threat to UEFA's Champions League, and which Infantino had discreetly supported.
