{"id":835610,"date":"2026-07-31T12:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835610\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:31:10","slug":"asian-football-body-joins-opposition-to-fifa-and-infantinos-world-cup-private-equity-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835610\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian football body joins opposition to Fifa and Infantino\u2019s World Cup private equity plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Asian Football Confederation has added its voice to those of Uefa and Concacaf in opposing Gianni Infantino\u2019s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup, and said the game\u2019s governing body needed to urgently review its management style.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In a lengthy statement released on Friday, the confederation, which represents 47 member associations, said it had \u201cserious concerns\u201d over Fifa\u2019s proposal to introduce private investment into its flagship competitions.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Infantino\u2019s proposed US$20 billion commercial subsidiary for Fifa events, backed by New York-based investor Joshua Kushner, \u201ccannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward\u201d and must be reconsidered, the AFC said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAccordingly, the AFC calls upon Fifa to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework,\u201d the AFC said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On Thursday, Uefa voted unanimously to boycott all \u200cFifa tournaments, while Concacaf, the regional federation for \u200cNorth America, Central America and the \u2060Caribbean, \u2060rejected the proposal.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIn light of the \u200cclear positions expressed by Uefa and Concacaf, \u200cas \u200cwell as the unprecedented divisions \u200cthat have emerged across the \u2060football world, the AFC believes that \u2060the proposed FFE [Fifa Forward Enterprise] cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad \u200cconsensus and \u200cunity required to move forward,\u201d the AFC added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The AFC has urged Fifa to review its governance and decision-making framework. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b2c4ad30-0e4b-4107-a9ed-554f4f9074f7_229b55a7.jpg\" title=\"The AFC has urged Fifa to review its governance and decision-making framework. Photo: AFP\"\/>The AFC has urged Fifa to review its governance and decision-making framework. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Asian Football Confederation has added its voice to those of Uefa and Concacaf in opposing Gianni Infantino\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[54181,1724,340802,64,63,406253,13201,16135,596,13202,403553,1025,2041,85,30835,21418],"class_list":["post-835610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-afc","tag-asia","tag-asian-football-confederation","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-concacaf","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-football","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-joshua-kushner","tag-new-york","tag-north-america","tag-sports","tag-uefa","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}