UEFA calls FIFA's action "selling the soul of football" and is collecting legal grounds to file a lawsuit. Not only UEFA, but a series of clubs in Europe are also upset about FIFA's intention.
The source comes from FIFA's desire to cooperate with US bank JP Morgan to establish Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE). This company has the task of raising hundreds of millions of USD by selling part of the commercial rights of the FIFA World Cup (male, female), FIFA Club World Cup to investors in need. FFE will commit to redistributing more than 10 billion USD to 211 FIFA member federations.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino shared that this plan will help the commercial segment of football operate as an independent and specialized enterprise, thereby the value will be shared more widely and effectively globally. This plan will need to be approved by member federations, but FIFA has not yet announced when the vote will take place.
FFE is expected to be valued at about 20 billion USD. This figure is estimated after the successful World Cup in trade recently in the US, Mexico and Canada. The 2026 World Cup is expected to bring FIFA 15 billion USD, much higher than the initial estimate of 13 billion USD. This unexpected growth may have motivated Mr. Infantino to further promote the copyright business.
This has exceeded the limits of football organizations. UEFA is considering this issue very seriously and other federations should also. In addition, other entities such as clubs, players, fans, the government and everyone who cares about the future of this sport need to speak out. The soul of football is not something that can be bought and sold arbitrarily, especially when it lacks transparency about who will benefit financially. None of us have the right to own football and therefore, it is not something FIFA can buy and sell" - excerpt from UEFA's announcement.
FIFA's plan may have existed for a long time, even before the 2026 World Cup took place. Until this information appeared in The Times and Financial Times recently, it caused a major media storm as it is now. Not only were external media surprised, FIFA's internal affairs also suffered a major shock. Most members of the FIFA board did not know this because the decision was entirely in the hands of President Infantino.
This is the 2nd time Mr. Gianni Infantino has wanted to mobilize private capital to sponsor FIFA. In 2018, he reached a preliminary agreement with Japanese bank SoftBank on a funding of 25 billion USD for the FIFA Club World Cup expanded model and the Nations League global tournament. However, it did not receive enough support, mainly due to opposition from European countries.
If this plan is successful, FIFA said that member federations will receive from 8 - 20 million USD. This is a small number for many large federations but very large for small federations. In fact, most federations in the large family of 211 FIFA members need this amount of money.
Next year, FIFA will re-elect the head and Mr. Gianni Infantino is expected to continue to sit in the chairman's chair. According to FIFA regulations, although re-elected in 2027, it is also Infantino's last term because he will be forced to leave the chair in 2031 after completing 3 terms. However, there is still a possibility that after leaving FIFA, Mr. Infantino will sit in the leadership chair of FFE if this company is truly formed.
