Infantino dangles $20m carrot

GENEVA — FIFA president Gianni Infantino set a Sept 19 deadline on Wednesday for each of the 211 member federations to accept a one-off $20 million offer as part of a project to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

The idea of establishing the $20 billion FIFA subsidiary was blasted by international soccer organizations. European soccer body UEFA aims to call its 55 member federations to an emergency online meeting, likely on Thursday. The organization said "there is significant and growing opposition to FIFA's scheme".

The effort is being bankrolled by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, United States President Donald Trump's son-in-law.

The attempt to try and lock in Joshua Kushner's investment firm Thrive Capital to a 12-year ownership deal with the Switzerland-based not-for-profit soccer body marks Infantino's latest effort to align with those in the orbit of Trump, following the creation of a FIFA peace prize for the US president and letting Trump intervene in a process that enabled US striker Folarin Balogun to circumvent a one-match ban at the World Cup.

Infantino set out the "singular and unique funding opportunity" in a letter detailing why he wants to create the FIFA Forward Enterprise — 20 percent of which would be owned by private investors — that would run FIFA's competitions and events like World Cups and Club World Cups.

"It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such game-changing opportunities to you, our members," Infantino wrote in the letter seen by reporters.

The effort elevates the status of Joshua Kushner, who has long been connected financially to his brother.

When Joshua Kushner founded a venture capital firm rather than following in the family's real estate footsteps, his elder brother was an early investor and a board member.

The brothers are reportedly close, and their father, Charles Kushner, serves as the US ambassador to France.

But Joshua Kushner has a history of six-figure donations to Democrats and his wife, the model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, attended last month's opening of the Obama presidential library and told Bloomberg earlier this year she's never met Donald Trump.

The proposal revealed Tuesday and backed by Thrive Capital was met with immediate fury from Infantino's former colleagues at UEFA, which said the World Cup "is not FIFA's to sell".

One option open to European soccer is to threaten a boycott of FIFA competitions — a tactic used in 2021 when UEFA-led opposition helped stop Infantino's plan to play the World Cup every two years instead of four.

On Wednesday, UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin hosted a video conference between its five member federations with the biggest soccer leagues: England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

"President Ceferin expressed his stance against this (FIFA) project," Giovanni Malago, the new president of Italian soccer said during the presentation of new Italy coach Roberto Mancini. "The situation is really a total conflict (of interest)."

Commercial ambitions

FIFA's private equity plan is the latest ambitious project proposed during Infantino's 11-year presidency, during which he has increasingly seemed to be an executive leader acting without consulting with soccer's major stakeholders.

Previous plans include creating the aforementioned FIFA Peace Prize — awarded to Trump in December at the World Cup draw — and trying to push through a secretive $25 billion private equity plan in 2018 to create new and bigger men's competitions that was resisted by UEFA.

Concerns about the latest and previously secret plan were aired Wednesday by the continental soccer bodies for Asia and the North American region known as CONCACAF.

"We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process," CONCACAF said in a statement.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation said it was "disappointed that a matter of such significance entered the public domain before the AFC family had been afforded the opportunity to examine and discuss it".

Continental bodies that organize their own international club and national-team competitions plus qualifying games — such as the Champions League, European Championship and Copa America — likely will see threats to those events from FIFA wanting to increase revenue and value for investors by playing World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women more often, along with adding more teams.

The influential, 850-member European Football Clubs group — which has a joint venture with UEFA to manage the Champions League — said it "learned about this proposal in the same way as most global soccer stakeholders — without warning and through the media".

Inviting in private investors could also "incentivize FIFA to further commodify the World Cup (think more hydration breaks and dynamic pricing) in a drive to increase its revenue," sports governance academic Antoine Duval suggested Wednesday.

What's on offer

If the FFE subsidiary is approved by a majority of the 211 members, they are each promised $20 million in funding from the four-year commercial cycle tied to the men's 2030 World Cup.

That would lead, Infantino wrote, to "a pool of diverse international investors" joining Thrive as the anchor investor: "This process will be led by J. P. Morgan."

If Infantino's plan is rejected, those members will get their previously promised $10 million over the next four years, his letter stated.

The cash difference on offer Wednesday to FIFA members appears to be $86 million over 12 years compared to about $36 million in existing promised funding for rejecting the private equity deal.

The rushed deadline to claim an initial $20 million "says everything you need to know about this plan," UEFA said. "FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends."

Dozens of member federations typically rely on FIFA for funding, have national teams with little realistic chance of qualifying for World Cups, and whose best players rarely, if ever, join clubs playing at the highest level of international competitions.

FIFA's one-member, one-vote democratic system means the most powerful soccer nations on the field easily can be outvoted by those who rarely play top-level games.

Extending final term

Infantino has seemed to be cruising toward being reelected unopposed as FIFA president for a fourth and final term through 2031.

Promising more FIFA funds to member federations was a decisive part of his initial election-day speech in February 2016, and at his unopposed reelections in 2019 and 2023.

Some observers have long suspected Infantino wants a longer-term role running the sport. A CEO or commissioner role at the proposed subsidiary would fit that bill.

AP