Teams cry foul as FIFA seeks private investors

On Tuesday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced a plan to create a $20 billion dollar FIFA subsidiary to run the World Cup and other FIFA competitions.

It would oversee commercial and event operations while FIFA itself would retain authority over the sport’s governance, regulations, match calendars and more.

In his surprise announcement, Infantio said the subsidiary would be called FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FEE.

Private investors would own 20% of FFE, and Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Jared Kushner’s brother Joshua Kushner, is expected to be the main initial backer tasked with bringing in other long-term investors.

With more money hypothetically coming in, FIFA’s 211 member associations, which represent countries and territories across 6 continents, would – if they chose to – get increased development fund payouts for their World Cup cycles.

Funds for the 2027 to 2030 cycle would jump from $8 million each to $20 million. They then increase to $22 million and $24 million respectively for the two following World Cup cycles.

But the whole plan met almost instantaneous criticism from the wider football world.

The Union of European Football Associations called for an emergency meeting of its members and, on X, accused FIFA of using the sport to enrich itself.  In a separate post, UEFA said, “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade.”

This all comes as the 2026 World Cup broke records for both revenue and ticket prices.

It also isn’t the first time Infantino has attempted a multi-billion dollar FIFA deal with private investors.

In 2018, he proposed a $25 billion deal to create new global competitions, but it was squashed under fierce UEFA pushback.

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