Fifa’s plan to sell a piece of its business empire to outside investors has collapsed following an open revolt by football officials worldwide and a major rift among top Fifa executives.
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in a statement on Friday evening.
The deal, in which Fifa had aimed to raise up to $4.2 billion by selling a roughly 20% stake in the group, valuing the new arm at $20 billion, is no longer active, the New York Post reported earlier, citing four sources familiar with the matter.
The proposal, which came out on Tuesday, was met with immediate resistance led by the European football governing body UEFA, which accused Fifa of putting the sport’s “soul” up for sale.
On Thursday, UEFA’s 55 member nations voted unanimously to boycott all Fifa tournaments — including the World Cup — less than two weeks after Spain’s men’s team were crowned world champions.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the North American and Caribbean federation also condemned the move.
Carlos Cordeiro, a senior adviser to Infantino, quit on Friday in protest at the plan and Fifa’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by Infantino, describing the proposal as a “project of one person”.
Fifa had proposed creating a $20-billion subsidiary, Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run the World Cup and its other events, but the non-profit group insisted that “nobody is selling football” and that the deal had been mischaracterised in the media.
Thrive Eternal, a fund run by Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, was expected to lead the proposed investor group, Fifa said. Joshua Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Infantino said in a letter to all member associations that they would receive $40 million each if they agreed to Fifa’s proposal by Sept 19.
Fifa said it would not go ahead with the plan without the support of the majority of its member associations.
