Rise and fall of Infantino's FIFA World Cup dream

Gianni Infantino looked untouchable.

Less than two weeks ago, the president of world's football governing body FIFA was sitting alongside US President Donald Trump at the World Cup final, the pair watching the culmination of the biggest tournament in football history.

Trump has often called Infantino the "King of Soccer" - and, for one afternoon at MetLife Stadium outside New York, the description did not seem far-fetched.

There were boos when the two men walked onto the pitch to present the trophy and medals to Spain and Argentina players. But they were little more than a footnote to what had otherwise been a triumphant month for FIFA.

The expanded World Cup had delivered on the pitch and at the box office, generating record revenues and widespread praise from much of the football world.

With around 200 of FIFA's 211 national member federations having pledged support for his reelection bid, Infantino appeared to be cruising towards another four-year term when delegates vote next March.

That sense of inevitability has since evaporated.

Instead of celebrating the tournament's success, Infantino has spent the past week battling the biggest political crisis of his presidency — one that has exposed deep divisions within global football and, for the first time in years, cast doubt over his grip on power.

The catalyst was his proposal to invite private investors, led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared, to buy a stake in the future profits of World Cups and other FIFA competitions.

The idea sparked an extraordinary backlash. Senior FIFA officials accused Infantino of misleading everyone over the project, while European nations threatened to boycott FIFA events if the plans went ahead.

By Saturday morning, the proposal was dead.

"Having 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," Infantino said in a statement.

The decision marked a remarkable reversal for a president who, only days earlier, had appeared politically unassailable.

Whether abandoning the investment project is enough to restore confidence in Infantino is another question, as he now faces a level of scrutiny and opposition that seemed almost unimaginable as he handed over the World Cup trophy alongside Trump only 12 days ago.

What would the plan have done?

Infantino's proposal would have created a subsidiary — known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — for the money-making parts of the not-for-profit football body's work: running tournaments like the World Cup, selling broadcasting and sponsorship, tickets and hospitality.

Private equity and petrostate sovereign wealth money has been normalized in European club football, yet they still seem unthinkable for many observers in the World Cup — football's ultimate prize is about glory, not money, and fans have long believed the World Cup belongs to them.

FIFA proposed raising $4.2 billion from investors buying stakes amounting to about 20 percent in FFE, based on an equity valuation of $20 billion.

The "anchor investor" would have been Thrive Eternal, launched by Joshua Kushner.

FIFA's 211 member federations, already effective owners of the governing body as a nonprofit association under Swiss law, were offered $20 million each. The deadline to accept was September 19.

Already, the members are due $10 million each from FIFA over the next four years, funded largely by its record $15 billion revenue over 2023-26 tied to the World Cup just finished. 

FIFA says under FFE, that would have doubled to $20 million each, then rise to $22 million each through 2034, and $24 million to 2038.

That's a massive sum for tiny football federations in places like Andorra, Montserrat and Papua New Guinea.

Deep-pocketed football powers like England, Spain or France have other priorities.

Who lined up in opposition?

Some FIFA vice presidents, some of FIFA's top executives, all the European football federations, the football bodies of Asia and North America, Britain's Prime Minister, the global group of national leagues, and a lot of fans worldwide. 

Infantino was looking increasingly friendless on Friday. His senior adviser, former Goldman Sachs banker Carlos Cordeiro, resigned and called it a bad deal.

FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said its staff were deceived by their president's World Cup sell-off plan, and suggested on Friday the project must not go ahead.

A key move on Thursday was European football body UEFA vowing to boycott all FIFA competitions until Infantino dropped the plan.

Europe's teams routinely dominate and win FIFA trophies like the men's World Cup and Club World Cup that are its biggest revenue earners.

They collectively feared that private investors would seek, and demand, value from more games and bigger competitions that threaten the balance of global football.

That could jeopardize attention and revenues for club football, including the Champions League.

Fixture calendars are already congested, elite players are at their limits, broadcast and sponsor money is not unlimited.

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 on Friday he had not spoken with the FIFA chief on his plan to sell stakes in the tournament.

Did anyone support it?

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.

The 10-nation South American group CONMEBOL said on Friday it had received the proposal and would evaluate the issue "with the rigor it demands".

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.

Will anything change at FIFA?

While football officials and fans around the world welcomed the shelving of the plans, the opposition to the World Cup sell-off once again highlighted tensions surrounding Infantino's modus operandi and reignited calls for greater transparency.

UEFA said in a statement that it had "lost confidence" in Gianni Infantino.

The European football body welcomed FIFA's decision to withdraw the plan and thanked the "fans, leagues, clubs, players, individuals, associations and confederations that opposed the scheme", but demanded consequences for the FIFA's leadership. 

"We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game. We must identify those responsible and hold them to account."

"The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA's confidence but also that of many other members of the football family."

The Asian Football Confederation's President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa also welcomed FIFA's reversal.

Salman wrote he expects "any initiative that has the potential to impact global football will be presented and discussed with the Confederations, the FIFA Council, Member Associations and other stakeholders in a timely, transparent and meaningful manner".

"The future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game."

Football Australia chairman Anter Isaac struck a similar note, backing innovation while warning against bypassing core governance principles.

What's next for Infantino?

The UEFA-led resistance succeeded in stopping the sell-off plan. Will that satisfy Infantino's opponents to leave him in office?

Does Infantino have the credibility to stay in office after interventions on Friday by Lamour and Cordeiro that surely would make most presidencies untenable?

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.

Infantino was reelected unopposed in 2019 in Paris, France, 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 $6 million.

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.

Speculation on a likely direct challenger typically lands on Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaïfi and the Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani.

Such talk seemed fanciful until this week, despite long-term unease with Infantino's style and previous attempts to force through unpopular projects.

The talk has never seemed more likely to become action.