{"id":795340,"date":"2026-07-31T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795340\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:02:09","slug":"fifa-adviser-carlos-cordeiro-resigns-in-protest-at-infantinos-private-equity-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795340\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigns in protest at Infantino’s private equity plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro, who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup<\/a>, resigned Friday in protest at its private equity plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,\u201d Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker, said in a statement resigning as adviser to FIFA President Gianni Infantino that urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.<\/p>\n

Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,\u201d Cordeiro, the former U.S. Soccer Federation president said, calling the $20 billion commercial subsidiary \u201ca bad deal for football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball has been central to my life, and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why this proposal should be rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n

European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions in protest of Gianni Infantino\u2019s plan to bring private equity investors into soccer\u2019s biggest tournament. North America\u2019s soccer body also rejected the proposal. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA\u2019s commercial businesses \u2014 including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women \u2014 into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.<\/p>\n

The \u201canchor investor,\u201d described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner. <\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA already has access to extraordinary financial resources. The organization sits on billions of dollars in reserves and no debt,\u201d Cordeiro said, noting FIFA\u2019s revenue of $15 billion over the last four years tied to the men\u2019s Wold Cup just ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football\u2019s most valuable asset to raise $4.2 billion makes little sense. It is mortgaging football\u2019s future without any compelling justification,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cordeiro said he shared five years working for FIFA alongside Infantino with \u201cdedicated, principled people who care deeply about the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they, too, will speak up,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbecause decisions of this magnitude should be made in the interests of football, not those who stand to profit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino has been president of FIFA for more than 10 years and had seemed sure to be reelected unopposed next March. FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward. <\/p>\n

___ <\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a> and AP World Cup coverage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro, who represented the soccer body on the White House…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[337726,12,7183,8363,7185,851,48658,102556,403,99,35992],"class_list":["post-795340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-carlos-cordeiro","tag-donald-trump","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-inc","tag-jared-kushner","tag-joshua-kushner","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-the-goldman-sachs-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}