![\"FIFA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fifa-president-gianni-infantino-right-talks-to-uefa-presiden-OAFK6VQUH5ESBAV4LJYMIFZG3U.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGianni Infantino truly looked like the \u201cKing of Soccer\u201d, as US President Donald Trump likes to call him, as the two allies sat together watching the World Cup final less than two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Sure, there were some boos inside MetLife Stadium near New York when the two men walked across the turf to present the trophy and medals to Spain and Argentina players on July 19.<\/p>\n
Still, that 104th and final game capped the biggest-ever tournament seen as a vindication for the FIFA president \u2014 a consensus success on the field and a financial bonanza for global football. Infantino could look ahead to his likely reelection coronation next March.<\/p>\n
The sunny scene must now feel an age ago since Infantino caused a seismic rift in global football.<\/p>\n
The intensifying fallout has threatened the 56-year-old Infantino’s job after he seemed untouchable until this week.<\/p>\n
Infantino’s misstep was inviting private investors, led by Joshua Kushner, to buy a stake in future profits from World Cups and all FIFA events. The ensuing backlash \u2014 which included vows by European nations to boycott FIFA events and claims from senior staff that Infantino deceived everyone \u2014 led Infantino to announce that he was abandoning the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Infantino left New York City last week with letters pledging election support from about 200 of FIFA\u2019s 211 national member federations who vote for their leader every four years. Now, even after scrapping his divisive investment project, his support remains unclear at best.<\/p>\n
What would the plan have done?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, talks to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin during the FIFA 75th Congress at the Conmebol Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Infantino’s proposal would have created a subsidiary \u2014 known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) \u2014 for the money-making parts of the not-for-profit soccer body’s work: Running tournaments like the World Cup, selling broadcasting and sponsorship, tickets and hospitality.<\/p>\n
Private equity and petrostate sovereign wealth money has been normalised in European club football, yet they still seem unthinkable for many observers in the World Cup \u2014 football’s ultimate prize is about glory, not money, and fans have long believed the World Cup belongs to them.<\/p>\n
FIFA proposed raising US$4.2 billion (NZ$7.1 billion) from investors buying stakes amounting to about 20% in FFE, based on an equity valuation of US$20 billion (NZ$34 billion). The \u201canchor investor\u201d would have been Thrive Eternal, launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of Trump.<\/p>\n
FIFA\u2019s 211 member federations \u2014 already effective owners of the governing body as a nonprofit association under Swiss law \u2014 were offered US$20 million (NZ$34 million) each. The deadline to accept was September 19.<\/p>\n
The members already are due US$10 million (NZ$17 million) each from FIFA over the next four years, funded largely by its record US$15 billion (NZ$25 billion) revenue over 2023-26 tied to the World Cup just ended. FIFA says under FFE, that would have doubled to US$20 million each, then rise to US$22 million (NZ$37 million) each through 2034, and US$24 million (NZ$40.8 million) to 2038.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a huge sum for tiny soccer federations in places like Andorra, Montserrat and Papua New Guinea. Deep-pocketed soccer powers like England, Spain or France have other priorities.<\/p>\n
Who lined up in opposition?<\/p>\n
![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/trump-and-infantino-BP3ZNV3CZFD3VIRYNQFLHTAGE4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Trump and Infantino enjoy the FIFA World Cup together. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Some FIFA vice presidents, some of FIFA\u2019s top executives, all the European federations, the bodies of Asia and North America, Britain\u2019s Prime Minister, the global group of national leagues, and a lot of fans worldwide. Everyone, essentially.<\/p>\n
Infantino was looking increasingly friendless. His senior adviser, former Goldman Sachs banker Carlos Cordeiro, resigned and called it a bad deal. FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour gave a stinging statement to The Associated Press in defence of colleagues that all but invited his boss to fire him.<\/p>\n
A key move was European soccer body UEFA vowing to boycott all FIFA competitions until Infantino dropped the plan. Europe\u2019s teams routinely dominate and win FIFA trophies like the men\u2019s World Cup and Club World Cup that are its biggest revenue earners.<\/p>\n
They collectively feared that private investors would seek \u2014 and demand \u2014 value from more games and bigger competitions that threaten the balance of global soccer. That could jeopardise attention and revenues for club soccer, including the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Fixture calendars are already congested, elite players are at their limits, broadcast and sponsor money is not unlimited.<\/p>\n
All are angry that Infantino seems not to have consulted anyone while planning the project over the last year, when he was so focused on spending time in Trump’s orbit. Even Trump said he had not spoken with the FIFA chief on his plan to sell stakes in the tournament.<\/p>\n
Did anyone support it?<\/p>\n
Infantino’s traditional support base in Africa, which has 54 of the 211 voting members, had been neutral about the offers of game-changing money for many of them.<\/p>\n
The 10-nation South American group CONMEBOL said on Friday it had received the proposal and would evaluate the issue \u201cwith the rigour it demands.\u201d CONMEBOL is led by FIFA vice president Alejandro Dominguez of Paraguay, who is relying on Infantino expanding the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams. That would give more games to minority co-hosts Argentina, Paraguay and inaugural 1930 World Cup host Uruguay, who currently are set to get just one game each of the 104. The rest are in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.<\/p>\n
What happens with Infantino?<\/p>\n
The UEFA-led resistance succeeded in stopping the sell-off plan. Will that satisfy Infantino’s opponents to leave him in office?<\/p>\n
Does Infantino have the credibility to stay in office after interventions Friday by Lamour and Cordeiro that surely would make most presidencies untenable?<\/p>\n
November 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.<\/p>\n
Infantino was reelected unopposed in 2019 in Paris and 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda. FIFA statutes allow him one more four-year term in office. The FFE spinoff seemed a way to create a commissioner-like role for Infantino beyond 2031, likely paying much more than his current annual salary and bonus deal of more than US$6 million.<\/p>\n
It would take 106 votes to ensure a majority in a contested election. Continents surely do not vote uniformly en bloc, but most of Europe’s 55, plus CONCACAF’s 35 and Asia’s 46 would be a solid base.<\/p>\n
Speculation on a likely direct challenger typically lands on Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari president Nasser al-Khela\u00effi and the Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani.<\/p>\n
Such talk seemed fanciful until this week, despite long-term unease with Infantino’s style and previous attempts to force through unpopular projects.<\/p>\n
The talk has never seemed more likely to become action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino truly looked like the \u201cKing of Soccer\u201d, as US President Donald Trump likes to call him,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[138,2966,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-554192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-business","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}