USA and Canada join global revolt against FIFA’s plan to sell the World Cup as Gianni Infantino faces calls to quit

The USA and Canada have joined the furious backlash to FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors.

Concacaf – the body that governs soccer in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean – wrote a statement on social media: ‘Concacaf was only made aware of this matter through media reports and, subsequently, via a media release.

‘We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process. We share the disappointment of many within our region and the game that this level of detail has been designed and shared publicly before any discussion with the relevant governance bodies and stakeholders has taken place.

‘As leaders within football, we are the custodians of the game. Collectively, FIFA, the Confederations and every Member Association have a responsibility to always act in the best interests of the sport.

‘Every decision we make must be guided by good governance, robust processes and long-term stewardship. This is the framework within which Concacaf operates. We trust that all within the FIFA family will act in the same manner.’

It comes after European nations joined forces against Infantino’s bleak scheme earlier on Thursday. 

Concacaf, which governs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, hit back

‘UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,’ the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations.

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe – the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from September 5.

‘Some things are simply too important to sell,’ UEFA said in a statement. ‘The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.’

The strategy meeting was called to counter Infantino’s offer of $20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members, which has to be accepted by mid-September.

Infantino’s secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in a new $20 billion subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) 20 percent owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members – already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law – that if they approve FFE, their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million.

‘This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,’ said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rise among soccer stakeholders, including three of the six continental bodies.

Infantino has been widely criticised for his decision to put the World Cup ‘up for sale’

FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino had seemed – 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey – to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

Soccer officials have said privately that Infantino has eyed a lucrative commissioner-like role at the FFE spinoff beyond 2031.

Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to ‘turbocharge’ funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.

Officials from about 40 UEFA members spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion reserves to fund extra development programs.

‘As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive,’ the European soccer body said, ‘unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.’

On a seismic day in soccer politics, a traditional bedrock of support in Asia for FIFA and Infantino had earlier Thursday been shaken.

‘FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,’ the Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, said in a letter to its 46 members of FIFA, warning of risks to their own competitions.

Less than two weeks after the World Cup final, global soccer has been thrust into conflict

Sheikh Salman, an ally of Infantino since losing the FIFA presidential election to him in 2016, wrote that ‘such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.’

In a video message published Wednesday by FIFA, Infantino insisted that spinning off its money-making operations was ‘an offer, not an obligation.’

A FIFA presentation for its members, co-written with its banking advisors from JP Morgan and seen by the AP, set a goal for FFE as ‘commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.’

That growing portfolio would likely include adding more teams to FIFA competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup for men and women, and potentially staging them more often than every four years, including in the U.S.

FIFA adding teams, games and competitions would squeeze the value, status and space in the congested global fixture calendar for those that fund and are organized by the six continental soccer bodies like UEFA and the AFC. Those include World Cup qualifying games, continental tournaments and Champions Leagues.

‘It is important that the AFC family has a complete understanding,’ Sheikh Salman wrote, ‘of how such an initiative may affect key areas of global and Asian football, including the sustainability of confederation and (domestic) competitions, as well as the organization and commercial landscape surrounding the AFC´s activities.’

A threatened World Cup boycott from Europe helped derail Infantino’s plan in 2021 to play World Cups every two years instead of four.