How to Stop Infantino — Two Ways FIFA's World Cup Plans Can Be Thwarted
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. FIFA President Gianni Infantino 's plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors has triggered the broadest revolt of his decade in charge of world soccer.
The proposal, first leaked to the press before being formally unveiled on July 28, would spin off FIFA’s commercial operations, including rights tied to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup, into a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise . Developed with JPMorgan and valued at roughly $20 billion, it calls for selling a minority stake of up to $4.2 billion to outside investors, led by Thrive Eternal, while FIFA keeps majority control.
Infantino has framed the plan as a way to increase investment across global soccer. He gave FIFA's 211 member associations until September 19 to approve it, offering payments that could nearly double to as much as $24 million per association during the 2035-39 cycle. Critics argue those incentives mask a larger strategic shift: an expanded tournament calendar that could eventually lead to a World Cup staged more often than every four years.
That concern has fueled the most significant challenge Infantino has faced since taking over FIFA in 2016. UEFA 's 55 member associations voted Thursday to boycott all FIFA competitions for as long as the plan remains active. CONCACAF rejected it the same day. The Asian Football Confederation, whose 46 members have long been considered an Infantino stronghold, followed Friday, saying FIFA needs "an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework."
The backlash has reached inside FIFA itself. Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino's senior adviser and FIFA's representative on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned Friday in protest, calling the plan "a bad deal for football." FIFA Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour told The Associated Press that staff had been "deceived" by the secrecy surrounding the project, describing it as "the project of one person."
“Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions," Lamour said.
When Newsweek reached out to FIFA and UEFA, both organizations referred Newsweek to their statements.
FIFA has responded with three statements in two days , insisting that "nobody is selling football" and blaming "incorrect media reports" for disrupting its consultation process.
The fight comes at a politically sensitive moment for Infantino, who had appeared set to win an unopposed fourth term next March; FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for challengers to enter that race. Infantino said more than 200 member associations had already pledged support for his 2027 reelection bid, but the recent developments added pressure on a man whose image has been heavily impacted after the 2026 World Cup .
Still, people familiar with FIFA’s internal politics say only two forces could stop the plan: UEFA, if it is willing to pursue a full breakaway, and the handful of elite clubs that employ the players FIFA needs for its tournaments.
UEFA's Thursday statement left little ambiguity. "The World Cup is not for sale," the confederation said, adding that no UEFA national team will play in a FIFA competition "for so long as these proposals remain alive."
Mark Pieth, who headed FIFA's Independent Governance Committee from 2011 to 2013 and has been one of Infantino's longest-standing critics, told Newsweek the vote marks a turning point regardless of what happens next.
"This is the first time a substantial group of associations is defining a red line," Pieth said. "If they pull it through, it amounts to what I had suggested all along: Europe should leave FIFA and do their own contests, inviting guests from other continents. It would resemble the situation we have in boxing."
Pieth said he could not yet judge whether UEFA is prepared to follow through. "I do not know how decided they are. We will see," he said.
The boxing comparison points to a possible precedent. CONMEBOL's Copa America has repeatedly invited guest teams, including the United States, Mexico and Qatar, to fill out its field. A UEFA tournament featuring Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, the United States and Japan would effectively create a rival World Cup without FIFA's involvement.
Simon Chadwick, a professor who studies the geopolitics of sport, told Newsweek the bigger question is whether UEFA has the votes and the willingness to sustain a confrontation. FIFA's presidency isn't won in Europe. It's won across the federation's global membership, particularly in Africa, where FIFA Forward funding matters most and where Infantino has spent a decade building support.
"UEFA alone is only 55 member associations," Chadwick said. "In the great scheme of things, that's about one-fifth of the globally available votes within FIFA. The big political powerhouse in terms of being reelected is, and always has been, Africa."
Chadwick cautioned against viewing UEFA's opposition as purely principled. UEFA's Champions League is itself a multibillion-dollar commercial operation, he said, and its biggest television markets, including Saudi Arabia, India and China, overlap with the territories Infantino is trying to expand into. "UEFA is not some great moral organization," Chadwick said.
He described the standoff as "two bulls" protecting competing global commercial models, warning that a full boycott could risk "seriously undermining" UEFA's own revenue. He expects the dispute to end in negotiation rather than an outright win for either side.
Much of Infantino’s tenure has involved trying to build new revenue streams for FIFA in areas where UEFA has long dominated. His push to stage the World Cup every two years in 2021 was rejected by UEFA and the European Club…
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