European soccer body UEFA aims to call its 55 member federations to an emergency online meeting, likely today. The organisation said, “there is significant and growing opposition to FIFA’s scheme”.<\/p>\n
The effort is being bankrolled by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.<\/p>\n
The effort marks Mr Infantino’s latest effort to align with those in the orbit of Mr Trump: by creating the FIFA peace prize<\/a>, letting Mr Trump intervene in a process that led to United States forward Folarin Balogun playing at the World Cup<\/a>, and now trying to lock in Joshua Kushner’s investment firm to a 12-year ownership deal with the Switzerland-based not-for-profit soccer body.<\/p>\n Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital with model and partner Karlie Kloss. (Getty Images: David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg)<\/p>\n Mr Infantino set out the “singular and unique funding opportunity” in a letter detailing why he wants to create the $US20 billion FIFA subsidiary \u2014 20 per cent owned by private investors \u2014 that would run the soccer body’s competitions and events like World Cups and Club World Cups.<\/p>\n “It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such game-changing opportunities to you, our members,” Mr Infantino wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n The effort elevates the status of Joshua Kushner, who has long been connected financially to his brother Jared.<\/p>\n When Joshua Kushner founded a venture capital firm rather than follow into the family’s real estate business, his elder brother was an early investor and a board member.<\/p>\n Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Joshua Kushner at an event in New York in 2013. (Getty Images: Patrick McMullan)<\/p>\n The brothers are reportedly close, and their father, Charles Kushner, received a pardon from Mr Trump and now serves as the US ambassador to France.<\/p>\n But the younger Kushner has a history of six-figure donations to Democrats, and his wife, the model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, attended last month’s opening of the Obama presidential library and told Bloomberg earlier this year she’s never met Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The proposal revealed and backed by Joshua Kushner’s investment firm Thrive Capital was met with immediate fury from Mr Infantino’s former colleagues at UEFA, which said the World Cup “is not FIFA’s to sell”.<\/p>\n Gianni Infantino has been overtly trying to find favour with US President Donald Trump and his inner-circle.<\/p>\n One option open to European soccer is to threaten a boycott of FIFA competitions \u2014 a tactic used in 2021 when UEFA-led opposition helped stop Mr Infantino’s plan to play the World Cup every two years instead of four.<\/p>\n UEFA and its president, Aleksander \u010ceferin, hosted a video conference between its five member federations and the biggest soccer leagues: England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.<\/p>\n “President \u010ceferin expressed his stance against this (FIFA) project,” Giovanni Malag\u00f2, the new president of Italian soccer, said during the presentation of new Italy coach Roberto Mancini.<\/p>\n “The situation is really total conflict.”<\/p>\n Infantino’s ambitions<\/p>\n FIFA’s private equity plan is the latest ambitious project proposed during Mr Infantino’s 11-year presidency, in which he has increasingly seemed to be an executive leader acting without consulting with soccer’s major stakeholders.<\/p>\n Previous plans include creating a FIFA Peace Prize \u2014 awarded to Mr Trump in December at the World Cup draw \u2014 and trying to push through a secretive $US25 billion private equity plan in 2018 to create new and bigger men’s competitions. That was resisted by UEFA.<\/p>\n Gianni Infantino (right) with then FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini at the UEFA Champions League final in 2007. (Getty Images: Etsuo Hara)<\/p>\n Concerns about the latest and previously secret plan were aired Wednesday by the continental soccer bodies for Asia and the North American region known as CONCACAF.<\/p>\n “We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process,” CONCACAF said in a statement.<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n What’s on offer to FIFA member federations<\/p>\n If a majority of the 211 members approve the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary, they also each are promised $US20 million in funding from the four-year commercial cycle tied to the men’s 2030 World Cup.<\/p>\n That would lead, Mr Infantino 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.”<\/p>\n If Mr Infantino’s plan is rejected, those members will get their previously promised $US10 million over the next four years, his letter stated.<\/p>\n Gianni Infantino supported the European Super League idea, which was deeply unpopular with football fans. (Getty Images: Adam Davy\/PA Images)<\/p>\n The cash difference on offer to FIFA members appears to be $US86 million over 12 years compared to about $US36 million in existing promised funding for rejecting the private equity deal.<\/p>\n The rushed deadline to claim an initial $US20 million “says everything you need to know about this plan,” UEFA said. “FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends.”<\/p>\n Dozens of member federations typically rely on FIFA for funding, have national teams with little realistic chance of qualifying for World Cups, and whose best players rarely, if ever, join clubs playing at the highest level of international competitions.<\/p>\n FIFA’s one-member, one-vote democratic system means the most powerful soccer nations on the field easily can be outvoted by those who rarely play top-level games.<\/p>\n Resistance in Britain<\/p>\n 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 Northern Ireland. FIFA is set to confirm that lone bid for 2035 at an online meeting in November.<\/p>\n “Football does not belong to investors,” Mr Burnham, a longtime soccer fan, said in a video message on Instagram.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/56038508108712fb0751a22cc3047551.jpeg\")
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