\u201cShocking.\u201d\u2028 \u201cFootball\u2019s nuclear bomb.\u201d \u201cWorse than the Super League<\/a>, and bigger than 115.\u201d \u201cThe line in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n None of that is exaggerated because it ties together so many of the extremes that have been pushing, pulling and twisting football, let alone the world, for so long, potentially crystallising so much of what has been coming to dictate its future: what the game should be and what it\u2019s becoming; how it repeatedly shows it has a social value that you can\u2019t buy as so many involved try to financially exploit that; what people say in private and what gets done in public.<\/p>\n You can even roll that right up to the seemingly dry details of governance like how the people who are going to vote on this, the heads of the member associations, are in many cases directly paid by Fifa through positions and committees.<\/p>\n This is when all of that matters most. How are they going to vote?<\/p>\n And, maybe most pertinently given the direction of the sport for so long, where is the resistance going to come from? Uefa<\/a> have talked a good game, with a statement that directly says this \u201ccrosses a line\u201d<\/a> and rightly asserts the World Cup\u2019s is \u201cnot Fifa\u2019s to sell\u201d \u2013 but are they finally going to play a hand? <\/p>\n Is this long-running tension going to spill out into a war that football arguably needs? Is anyone going to look at the bigger picture and actually make a stand?<\/p>\n Because, and this really can\u2019t be stressed enough, once you start selling the game off, there\u2019s really no getting it back.<\/p>\n Typical of how football and the world are going, Fifa\u2019s 1,403-word statement of course turned all of this rationale on its head. It\u2019s of a piece with Gianni Infantino<\/a>\u2019s unhinged Sunday statement about criticism.<\/a> This announcement was headlined \u201cFifa intends to expand football development funding to over USD 10 billion subject to approval by Fifa Member Associations\u201d, so duly framed by ideas of redistribution and democracy.<\/p>\n Once again, a not-for-profit raising money, any money, was automatically elevated as if it\u2019s a good thing without any further thought. The core reality was finally referenced a bit further down, as Fifa spoke of \u201ccarefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests\u201d in the new Fifa Forward Enterprise programme. That is set to bring the creation of a new company being formed to run the primary competitions, where Fifa would own a majority stake, private investors would have 20 to 30 per cent and then the 211 members a small stake totalling around 20 per cent.<\/p>\n Except, \u201cnon-controlling\u201d isn\u2019t how such money tends to really work. In reality, that kind of money brings a lot of influence.<\/p>\n By the same token, for all that Fifa bleated in seemingly endless paragraphs about how such thinking \u201clifts the whole game\u201d and the need \u201cto make sure the rest of football grows\u201d, those now responsible for voting on this need to actually earn their money and think about the deeper implications.<\/p>\n There are profound concerns here even beyond the core philosophical virtue that the World Cup only belongs to the countries of the world \u2013 and, by extension, its football communities \u2013 and that\u2019s it. What do they think happens once you allow such interests in? There might be the short-term benefit of being able to point your own national association to newly flush cash reserves of up to $20m \u2013 but what next?<\/p>\n Clue: such interests don\u2019t tend to have wider societal concerns; they don\u2019t care for what doesn\u2019t make money. As one source puts it, \u201cthe current stakeholders benefit but everyone loses out in the future\u201d. Trickle-down economics don\u2019t work here, as the last few decades of football have made emphatically clear. This is why Celtic or Ajax don\u2019t win the Champions League any more. It\u2019s why every other country suffers a talent drain to Western Europe.<\/p>\n And what would now be directly incentivised \u2013 especially through the establishment of a company to run all of this \u2013 is the expansion of the Club World Cup and all of the ideas that serve existing wealth, both in the game and society. It shouldn\u2019t be forgotten that Infantino was involved in Super League discussions, with the clubs at one point thinking they had Fifa\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n The global governing body have now already confirmed that Josh Kushner, brother of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner,<\/a> has been in talks about becoming the proposed lead investor. <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/75efa1ea5f0fcfa9d042218867521262Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzg1MjI0NTY1-2.85355299.jpg\")
The move comes hot on the heels of a Trumpian-style rant by Infantino defending the 2026 World Cup (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Infantino](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b85c0673a4a585e4482089fbe1130b41Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzg1MzE3Mjgz-2.85358294.jpg\")
Infantino has been called before a US Congressional committee over allegations he sought to curry favour with Trump and his administration (PA)<\/p>\n
![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-28T162049Z_1464435822_RC26HMACLVU8_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-FIFA-STAKE.JPG\")
Members of the Fifa Council insist they found out about the plan through the media (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-10T150421Z_1448400766_RC22BMAYKJ0O_RTRMADP_3_MEDIA-SUNVALLEY.JPG\")
Josh Kushner has been in talks about becoming the proposed lead investor, Fifa confirmed (Reuters)<\/p>\n