Soccer
Gianni Infantino’s senior adviser quits over World Cup investment plan
Pressure is mounting on FIFA president Gianni Infantino after his senior adviser resigned over plans to sell a stake in a World Cup company to private investors.
Infantino’s plan has been rejected by the European and Asian confederations, as well as the one representing nations from North and Central America and the Caribbean. European nations have said they will not play in FIFA competitions until the project is scrapped.
Now Carlos Cordeiro has quit his role as an adviser to Infantino, describing the plans to create FIFA Forward Enterprise as a “bad deal for football”.
“Football has been central to my life and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away. That is why this proposal should be rejected,” he said in a statement.
FIFA’s plans to sell a minority stake in a new company, FIFA Forward Enterprise, to private investors first emerged in media reports on Tuesday.
FIFA later confirmed that Thrive Eternal – a company founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – had been earmarked as the leader of the investor group.
Infantino’s handling of the matter drew damning criticism from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Friday morning, which called for an “urgent review” of FIFA’s governance and decision-making process.
His senior adviser has now also quit, with Cordeiro questioning the need for FIFA to even seek private equity investment in this way.
“FIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources,” he said.
“The organisation sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt. The FIFA president himself has highlighted the 15 billion US dollars in revenue generated between 2022 and 2026.
“If member associations believe additional investment is needed to develop the game, FIFA already has the financial capacity to provide that support from its existing resources. Against that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football’s most valuable asset to raise 4.2 billion dollars makes little sense. It is mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification.
“FIFA is now being asked to believe that outside investors are needed to unlock greater value. I do not accept that proposition. The people who built this success have already demonstrated that FIFA possesses the expertise to continue growing both the game and its commercial future.
“Most troubling of all is the absence of answers to fundamental questions. Why this deal? Why now? What oversight exists? Who benefits? Was there a competitive process? What governance will be in place? What will investors ultimately gain, and at what cost to football?
“These questions remain largely unanswered, and yet member associations are being asked to make a decision of enormous consequence in barely 50 days or risk being left behind. That is not a responsible way to determine the future of the world’s game.”
UEFA was the first confederation to turn the screw on Infantino’s proposal when it announced on Thursday afternoon that European nations would boycott FIFA competitions until the plan was scrapped.
Like the AFC, it raised concerns over the manner in which the plans had emerged, with even European members of the FIFA Council understood to have been blindsided by Tuesday’s reports.
Its chief grievance though is the potential for private investor influence to affect FIFA’s competitions, amid fears they would grow in size and frequency to maximise returns.
“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said.
“Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure. From that moment onwards, every decision on the international calendar, every decision on competition formats and every decision shaping the future of football is no longer driven by what best serves the game, but by what best serves shareholders.”
FIFA issued a statement in the early hours of Friday morning – after the UEFA and CONCACAF rejections of its plan but before AFC’s – insisting the consultation process would continue and that “nobody is selling football”.
FIFA has always insisted it would retain sole ownership and control of FFE, and has focused mainly on the financial benefits to member associations of the plan.
A spokesperson for Thrive declined to comment.
