{"id":576735,"date":"2026-08-06T17:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/576735\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T17:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:32:15","slug":"uefa-planning-to-check-if-infantino-tried-to-sell-stakes-in-world-cup-on-cheap-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/576735\/","title":{"rendered":"Uefa planning to check if Infantino tried to sell stakes in World Cup on cheap | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uefa plans to commission an independent valuation of Fifa\u2019s World Cup sale plans<\/a> after concerns that Gianni Infantino agreed to sell the tournament\u2019s future profits to a private equity firm at below the market rate.<\/p>\n

The European governing body is unmoved by the written apology issued by Infantino<\/a> to Fifa\u2019s 211 member associations on Tuesday after crisis talks in Morocco. It will continue to push for his removal, with its tactics including further scrutiny of a proposal the president belatedly conceded was \u201ca mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Fifa Forward Enterprise plan that was last week abandoned after four days<\/a> involved a 21% stake being sold to Thrive Capital for $4.2bn (\u00a33.1bn). The US private equity firm is led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

Uefa played a key role in Fifa\u2019s U-turn, which was triggered by all 55 member associations threatening last week to boycott the World Cup<\/a> and other tournaments, and is now seeking to establish how the $20bn valuation of Fifa\u2019s commercial assets was worked out. Uefa has spoken to several market analysts seeking opinions regarding an independent valuation and a formal study is likely to follow once the storm surrounding Infantino\u2019s immediate future has passed.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Fifa sales deck circulated details that did not contain any information of the valuation process or any evidence of a competitive tender. \u201cWe need to find out if they were selling the World Cup at a knockdown price,\u201d a source with knowledge of Uefa\u2019s plans said. \u201cHow did they get to $20bn? Was it a robust process?\u201d Fifa\u2019s revenues for the four-year cycle that culminated in this summer\u2019s World Cup were $15bn, leading the market analysts to suggest that $20bn was a low valuation, particularly as the proposal did not appear to include any provisions to prevent expansion and the creation of new tournaments.<\/p>\n

The US private equity firm that was interested in acquiring a stake in the World Cup plans is led by Joshua Kushner (right), the brother of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law. Photograph: TheStewartofNY\/GC Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is the only genuinely global mass entertainment event so an increase of $5bn on current revenues seems low to me,\u201d the source said. \u201cThis looks like a low-ball offer. The obvious financial upside of further expansion that the investors would demand \u2013 more teams, more regular World Cups, more Club World Cups \u2013 is not priced in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uefa has also called for a review of Fifa\u2019s governance, and threatened it with legal action. Fifa is attempting to put on a united front despite scathing internal criticisms of the sell-off plan from leading figures<\/a> including the secretary general, Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, the chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, and Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, head of football development.<\/p>\n

Infantino appeared alongside Grafstr\u00f6m at a Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations group game between Malawi and Zambia in Morocco on Wednesday after attending crisis talks in Rabat. That was followed by a Fifa<\/a> statement saying the president retained the \u201cfull support\u201d of the organisation.<\/p>\n

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Such apparent support indicates there will be no further dissent from within Fifa and the push for change will have to come from outside the organisation.<\/p>\n

Fifa was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uefa plans to commission an independent valuation of Fifa\u2019s World Cup sale plans after concerns that Gianni Infantino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-576735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}