{"id":835753,"date":"2026-07-30T11:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835753\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:23:09","slug":"infantino-insists-fifas-world-cup-plan-is-proposal-and-not-obligation-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835753\/","title":{"rendered":"Infantino insists FIFA\u2019s World Cup plan is proposal and not \u2018obligation\u2019 | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Football governing bodies hit out at plans to sell World Cup stakes; FIFA insist proposal is not an \u2018obligation\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 30 Jul 202630 Jul 2026<\/p>\n<p>FIFA President Gianni \u2060Infantino has called \u2060the plan to sell stakes in the World Cup a proposal but \u201cnot an obligation\u201d, after the idea \u2060provoked a furious response from a number of football authorities.<\/p>\n<p>FIFA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/7\/29\/infantinos-fifa-world-cup-stakes-plan-would-uefa-boycott-would-it-work\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced plans this week<\/a> to create a $20bn subsidiary to run \u2060the World Cup and its other events, and said it will offer stakes of up to 20% in it to external investors.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The proposal drew strong criticism from the sport\u2019s regional confederations, \u200cwhich said they were blindsided by the plan by world football\u2019s governing body to bring private investors into the sport.<\/p>\n<p>But Infantino said strengthening the commercial side of the game is the natural next step in this evolution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s part of a democratic process \u2013 a consultation process \u2013 and, above \u2060all, it is an opportunity but not \u2060an obligation, and, as I said, it kicks off the consultation process,\u201d Infantino said in a video provided by FIFA on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>FIFA is one \u2060of the world\u2019s wealthiest sporting organisations, generating billions of dollars in revenue, largely from \u2060broadcasting rights, sponsorship and other commercial deals \u2060linked to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Infantino insisted in his remarks that fans will remain the cornerstone of football and said, \u201cFIFA obviously continues to govern football without any external interference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the flagship tournament it \u200corganises, \u200clike the FIFA World Cup or the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup, will always remain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football governing bodies hit out at plans to sell World Cup stakes; FIFA insist proposal is not an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12624,49,48,527,799,44,457,82,772,1690,13010],"class_list":["post-835753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}