> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://theseguysknow.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # FIFA Says It Is Not Selling Football. Then What Is the $20 Billion Company For? - URL: https://theseguysknow.io/fifa-20-billion-world-cup-private-equity-plan/ - Published: 2026-07-31T10:12:17.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-31T10:12:17.000Z - Description: FIFA says nobody is selling football. It only wants investors to own part of the company controlling the World Cup’s commercial business. Sure-Sure. - Author: Kendrick Hale - Tags: Things to Watch FIFA says nobody is selling football. Fine. It only wants to place the commercial rights and operation of the World Cup inside a new $20 billion company, then sell up to 20% of that company to private investors. Come on. What are we talking about? Less than two weeks after Spain lifted the World Cup, Gianni Infantino was already explaining how FIFA could “unlock” more commercial value from it. Apparently the most popular sporting competition on Earth was still not making enough money. UEFA’s 55 national associations have now voted unanimously to boycott FIFA competitions while the proposal remains alive. CONCACAF’s 41 associations rejected it too. FIFA responded by announcing that its consultation would continue. This has gone from another strange Infantino idea to a genuine fight over who owns the World Cup. ## Quick Answer FIFA wants to establish FIFA Forward Enterprise, a subsidiary valued at $20 billion that would combine the commercial rights and operational delivery of the World Cup and its other tournaments. Outside investors could buy up to 20%, raising as much as $4.2 billion. FIFA says it would retain control and reinvest the money in football development. UEFA argues that introducing private owners creates a permanent obligation to generate returns from competitions FIFA is supposed to protect, not own. UEFA is right. Infantino has treated the World Cup like an asset waiting to be unlocked, and he should go. ## What Is FIFA Forward Enterprise? FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, would bring FIFA’s broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing rights together with the operational delivery of its tournaments. That includes the men’s and women’s World Cups, Club World Cups and FIFA’s youth competitions. According to [FIFA’s proposal](https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/intends-expand-football-development-funding-usd-10-billion-subject-approval-member-associations?ref=theseguysknow.io), the new company would have an initial valuation of $20 billion. FIFA would sell minority interests to outside investors and raise up to $4.2 billion. Thrive Eternal, an investment company established by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investor group. JPMorgan is working with FIFA on the process. FIFA says the investors would receive no operational role, while FIFA would retain majority board control and exclusive authority over the rules, calendar and sporting decisions. It has also promised that the benefits will be reinvested in football. That is FIFA’s case. More development money, greater commercial expertise and no loss of sporting control. It sounds lovely when written by the people selling it. ## FIFA Is Already a Non-Profit Here is the funny part: FIFA is already legally a non-profit organisation. The structure people think football needs already exists on paper; FIFA earns money from the World Cup and is supposed to put that money back into tournaments and the development of the game. FIFA says it expects to reinvest [more than 90% of its budgeted investments for the 2023–2026 cycle](https://inside.fifa.com/media-releases/five-million-ticket-requests-in-24-hours-underlines-global-demand-fifa-world-cup-2026?ref=theseguysknow.io). Making money is not automatically the problem. Organising a World Cup costs a fortune. FIFA should also fund pitches, coaches, referees, national teams, youth football and the women’s game in countries that cannot fund everything themselves. The problem is who that money begins to serve. A non-profit governing body can earn billions and use them for football. A company with private shareholders has another permanent audience in the room: the people who paid for equity and expect a return. FIFA can write “non-controlling” in bold letters as many times as it wants. Twenty per cent is still twenty per cent. ## Private Investors Are Not Donating $4.2 Billion Thrive Eternal may be a brilliant investor; JPMorgan may produce the most beautiful presentation football has ever seen. It does not matter. Private investors are not preparing to hand FIFA $4.2 billion because they want to build changing rooms in Curaçao - they expect economic upside. That could come from greater broadcasting revenue, more sponsorship inventory, higher ticket income, new tournament formats, additional matches or a higher future valuation of the company. The exact return structure has not been published, which is another reason nobody should be rushing this decision. UEFA described the central problem perfectly: once investors enter, “commercial return becomes a permanent obligation.” FIFA argues that investors will have no authority over the calendar or competition formats. Perhaps that protection will be written into the final documents. Pressure does not require a formal vote, though. If the company misses its revenue targets, investors will not sit quietly in New York and admire the purity of a traditional 32-team tournament. They will ask how the business intends to grow. ## The World Cup Is Not Infantino’s Startup FIFA did not invent football. It did not create the supporters, clubs, players or national teams that give the World Cup its value. It organises a competition built by more than a century of football played everywhere from enormous stadiums to bits of grass between apartment buildings. European Leagues put it bluntly: “It is not FIFA President’s private equity asset.” **Exactly.** Imagine the organisation managing the Olympics announcing that the Games now have a $20 billion enterprise valuation and Goldman Sachs would like a slice. Imagine a public museum selling equity in the company controlling its collection because visitor passion had some “uncaptured commercial potential.” Everyone would immediately understand what had gone wrong. FIFA speaks as though it created the demand. In reality, it received the privilege of organising something people already loved. It is the custodian. It is not the owner. ## A Democratic Vote With $40 Million Sitting Beside It Infantino calls the proposal democratic because a majority of FIFA’s 211 member associations must support it. The FIFA Council must also approve the required changes. There is a slight complication. FIFA’s package gives each participating association access to up to $20 million in immediate project funding, followed by $20 million in Forward funding for the 2027–2030 cycle. The current amount budgeted for that cycle is $8 million. The associations were given until September 19 to support the proposal. For England or Germany, this money is relatively small. For a football association in a poorer country, it could transform the entire national programme. Of course that offer will influence the vote. I am not calling it an illegal bribe. I am saying that attaching an enormous funding increase and an artificially short deadline to the decision makes FIFA’s performance about democracy difficult to take seriously. UEFA called it “governance by intimidation.” CONCACAF criticised the short deadline, lack of due process and absence of prior review by FIFA’s relevant governance bodies. Both CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation said they learned about the detailed proposal through media reports. Nothing says transparent global consultation like discovering the plan from a journalist after the investor presentations have already begun. ## UEFA Is Hypocritical. UEFA Is Also Right Let us not suddenly pretend UEFA operates from a monastery. Its elite club competitions generated €4.4 billion in the 2024–2025 season. It constantly fights for calendar space, protects its own competitions and extracts enormous commercial value from European football. UEFA likes money too. The difference is that UEFA has drawn a correct line here. Selling equity in the entity controlling the commercial operation of the World Cup creates a relationship that cannot simply be removed when the next FIFA president has another idea. Its 55 member associations voted 55–0 to boycott every FIFA tournament until the proposal is abandoned and FIFA gives binding assurances against private ownership. That is a serious threat. A World Cup without Spain, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and the rest of Europe is no longer a credible World Cup. CONCACAF then rejected the proposal through its 41 associations. The AFC has issued its own furious criticism. FIFA can continue calling this a consultation. The people being consulted appear to be telling it to get lost. ## Why Does FIFA Always End Up Looking Like This? Every time FIFA starts talking about billions, the same question returns: why does this organisation always make money feel dirty? The suspicion did not appear from nowhere. Former FIFA president João Havelange resigned his honorary presidency after FIFA’s Ethics Committee ruled that he had taken bribes from the ISL sports-marketing company. Sepp Blatter’s presidency ended during the 2015 corruption crisis. The US Department of Justice charged senior football officials and executives over a 24-year scheme involving more than $150 million in alleged bribes and kickbacks. The US attorney general described the corruption as “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted.” Several defendants pleaded guilty, although Blatter himself was not charged in that US case and was later acquitted in a separate Swiss criminal case involving a payment to Michel Platini. Infantino has not been convicted of corruption either. A Swiss investigation into his meetings with the country’s former attorney general was closed without charges in 2023. So no, we cannot accurately publish that Infantino is a thief. We can say that FIFA has an extraordinary history of senior officials treating commercial rights as something they personally control. We can also say that Infantino’s secretive attempt to bring private investors into the World Cup shows that FIFA has still not learned what stewardship means. You do not need a criminal conviction to remove a president for terrible leadership. ## Infantino Should Go The public may not yet know every detail of the FFE proposal. FIFA says inaccurate reporting disturbed a consultation that was still underway. Fair enough. We have not seen every contract, shareholder protection or financial projection. What is already public is enough. A $20 billion commercial company was developed without meaningful consultation with major confederations. Potential investors and bankers were involved before many football associations even knew what was happening. Associations then received a short deadline alongside a massive funding package. When people objected, FIFA replied that nobody was selling football. If Infantino genuinely cannot understand why people see a sale when he offers investors equity, he should not be running FIFA. If he does understand and thinks repeating “minority stake” makes the problem disappear, he should not be running it either. FIFA does not need to become another private-equity machine extracting more money from a passion it did not create. It needs to organise the tournaments, distribute the revenue properly, develop football and remember who the game belongs to. Infantino has forgotten. He should go before he discovers another piece of football that needs its commercial potential “unlocked.” ## What Happens Next? FIFA says it will continue consulting all 211 member associations and will abandon FFE if a majority does not support it. UEFA’s boycott remains in place while the proposal is alive. CONCACAF has rejected it. The AFC says a change this significant cannot proceed without agreement across all six continental confederations. The plan may now collapse, be delayed or return in a slightly softer package with a different name. Even if FIFA withdraws it tomorrow, the episode has already shown where Infantino’s instincts lead. The World Cup ended, everyone was still talking about the football, and he looked at the entire thing and saw a $20 billion company. That tells us enough. ## Common Questions ### Is FIFA selling the World Cup? FIFA says no. It would retain control of football governance and at least 80% of FIFA Forward Enterprise. However, outside investors would own up to 20% of the company holding the commercial rights and operational delivery of the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments. ### Why is UEFA boycotting FIFA competitions? UEFA believes private ownership would create permanent pressure to prioritise investor returns. Its 55 member associations have agreed not to participate in FIFA tournaments while the proposal remains active. ### How much would investors pay? FIFA wants to raise up to $4.2 billion based on an initial company valuation of $20 billion. ### Who would invest in FIFA Forward Enterprise? Thrive Eternal, established by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead a geographically diversified investor group. JPMorgan is working with FIFA on the proposed transaction. ### Can the proposal still pass? Yes, although the opposition makes approval increasingly difficult. FIFA requires support from a majority of its 211 member associations and approval from the FIFA Council. #### Sources - [FIFA: Proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise and development funding](https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/intends-expand-football-development-funding-usd-10-billion-subject-approval-member-associations?ref=theseguysknow.io) - [Reuters: FIFA proceeds with consultation despite opposition](https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/fifa-proceed-with-consultation-process-over-stake-sale-plans-2026-07-31/?ref=theseguysknow.io) - [Reuters: UEFA’s full statement on the FIFA proposal](https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/uefa-statement-fifa-plan-sell-stakes-subsidiary-run-world-cup-2026-07-30/?ref=theseguysknow.io) - [CONCACAF: Statement rejecting FIFA Forward Enterprise](https://www.concacaf.com/competitions/concacaf/news/statement-on-behalf-of-concacaf-and-its-41-member-associations?ref=theseguysknow.io) - [European Leagues: Statement on FIFA](https://europeanleagues.com/european-leagues-statement-on-fifa/?ref=theseguysknow.io) - [US Department of Justice: 2015 FIFA corruption indictments](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and-five-corporate-executives-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and?ref=theseguysknow.io)