The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) announced that it will not give up the plan to establish FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), despite the strong wave of protests from UEFA and many other organizations.
In the latest announcement, the world football governing body affirmed that FFE's goal is to help member federations more effectively exploit the commercial value of football, while refuting concerns that FIFA is seeking to privatize the World Cup.
No one sells football. FIFA will never consider that" - the organization's announcement emphasized.
FIFA also said it will continue the consultation process with 211 member federations after saying that initial information in the media has made public opinion misunderstand the proposal.
We respect all contributions and are committed to maintaining an open and transparent consultation process. Each member federation has the right to consider proposals and contribute opinions on the future of football" - FIFA said.
However, this statement did not reduce pressure from UEFA. Less than 2 days after the plan was revealed, all 55 UEFA member federations agreed not to participate in any FIFA tournaments if this proposal is not completely revoked.
According to UEFA, opening the way for private ownership to participate in FIFA tournaments will threaten the traditional football governance model and risk increasingly expanding tournaments for commercial purposes.
CONCACAF also quickly joined the wave of protests when it declared to completely reject FIFA's proposal.
The center of the plan is the establishment of FIFA Forward Enterprise, the unit expected to manage and exploit the commercial rights of the World Cup. FIFA President Gianni Infantino is said to strongly support this initiative, while a group of investors led by Joshua Kushner - founder of Thrive Eternal - are interested in buying a minority stake in the joint venture.
However, observers believe that FFE's business model is unlikely to be effective if European teams boycott the World Cup. Not only UEFA, many domestic tournaments and football organizations are also concerned that FIFA will continue to expand the scale and frequency of tournament organization to maximize revenue, causing the schedule to become increasingly overloaded.
Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol commented that this is the biggest crisis in President Gianni Infantino's term. He believes that instead of continuing to blame the media, the head of FIFA should directly apologize to member federations and fans to cool down tensions.
According to Solhekol, Infantino has overcome crises many times, but this time the situation is much more serious when opposition comes from most of the most powerful organizations in world football. If FIFA still persists in pursuing the FFE plan without reaching consensus, the confrontation with UEFA and regional federations is likely to escalate in the near future.
