SI:AM | FIFA’s Latest Scheme Is Shameful Even by Its Low Standards

The plot to sell the World Cup is another stain on the organization’s already tattered reputation.

FIFA’s plan to transfer control of the World Cup to a spinoff company has drawn criticism for how it would benefit investors with ties to President Donald Trump. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. If FIFA is so desperate for cash, why doesn’t it just sell jersey ads? If Notre Dame can do it, anyone can. 

In today’s SI:AM: 
😞 More FIFA controversy
🏈 Breer from Cardinals camp
💪 WNBA’s clutch performers

If you’re reading this on SI.com, click here to subscribe and receive SI:AM directly in your inbox each morning.

Another FIFA cash grab

Did you enjoy this summer’s World Cup? Don’t get used to it. 

FIFA has proposed transferring control of the men’s and women’s World Cups (as well as the Club World Cup) to a newly created spinoff organization that would be owned in part by outside investors—a move decried by critics as selling the soul of the sport. 

Grey Whitebloom has an excellent breakdown of the FIFA proposal, the reasons behind it and the swift backlash. 

The short version is this: FIFA would create a subsidiary called the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) charged with “consolidating FIFA’s commercial and event operations.” FIFA would sell shares in FFE, with outside investors controlling a 21% stake in the new company. Capital raised from investors would be redistributed equally among FIFA’s member nations. 

FIFA has already said that the lead investor would be the permanent capital holding company Thrive Eternal, which is led by Joshua Kushner. (He is the brother of Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of FIFA Peace Prize recipient Donald Trump.) 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has drawn plenty of criticism for his unusually close relationship with Trump. He’s facing an official ethics complaint over FIFA’s decision to allow U.S. forward Folarin Balogun to play in the team’s round of 16 match at Trump’s behest, and member of Congress Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) has requested that Infantino appear before the House Judiciary Committee to discuss FIFA’s ties with Trump and the president’s family business. 

The scheme to spin off the World Cup would also be a windfall for Infantino. He’s widely expected to be re-elected as FIFA president next year (likely running unopposed, as he did in 2019 and ’23) for what would be his third full four-year term. He would be ineligible to run again in ’31, but it doesn’t sound like he’d be out of work. London newspaper The Times reported that Infantino would be the commissioner of the new spinoff company, commanding a salary on par with the NFL commissioner’s most recent publicly disclosed salary ($64 million in 2021). 

Spinning off control the World Cup would allow Infantino to remain in charge of the tournament after his term as FIFA president is over. | REUTERS

Infantino and his allies in the White House stand to benefit most from the FFE plan, but FIFA is also trying to spin it as beneficial for its members. Each member association would earn $20 million across the 2027–30 cycle, more than double the $8 million they would receive under the current arrangement. FIFA is selling it as a way to “strengthen football infrastructure and opportunity worldwide.”

But the backlash has been severe and widespread. Hans-Joachim Watzke, the vice president of Germany’s governing body and vice president of UEFA’s executive committee, called the plan “an outright attack on football” and said “a line has been crossed here.” 

“The World Cup is not a product,” U.K. prime minister Andy Burnham wrote on social media. “It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.” 

Even former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who resigned in 2015 amid a global corruption scandal, cried foul. 

“The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football,” Blatter wrote on social media. “No one has the right to sell our game.”

The most significant opposition came from UEFA, the European soccer federation. 

“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade—especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” UEFA said in a statement issued Tuesday. “None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.” On Wednesday, the federation issued another statement, saying, in part, “FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends.”

UEFA appears poised to put its words into action, too. ESPN reported that the federation—home to many of the best teams in the world—is considering a World Cup boycott to oppose the FIFA proposal.

The threat of a boycott, which could severely reduce the prestige of the World Cup, might be enough to get FIFA to back off the proposed cash grab. But before the plan can go into effect, it needs to be approved by a majority of FIFA’s 211 member associations. UEFA accounts for 55 of those members. If UEFA remains unified in its opposition, that would mean FIFA would need 106 of the remaining 156 members to vote in favor of the plan. 

UEFA members have won five of the last six men’s World Cups, including Spain’s victory this year. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

In some ways, the FIFA proposal feels similar to the 2021 outcry over the proposed European Super League—a plan that would have removed many of the continent’s top club teams from their domestic leagues and created a sort of year-round Champions League. The plan was universally denounced as destroying the very fabric of the game and sparked widespread protests from fans. It was quickly abandoned. 

FIFA’s plan is equally unpopular, but can it be stopped? Soccer’s most powerful nations seem united in their opposition, but the prospect of increased payouts might be enticing to smaller nations on shoestring budgets for whom the World Cup is a distant dream. Can FIFA get enough votes from members like Vanuatu, Eritrea and Bhutan to ensure the measure passes?

Regardless of whether the plan becomes a reality, the very idea of the proposal is another stain on FIFA’s already tattered reputation. This summer’s excellent World Cup was another reminder that the tournament succeeds despite FIFA’s involvement, not because of it. No matter how much FIFA and its officials use the sport to enrich themselves and cozy up to authoritarian governments, the games always overshadow the off-field sliminess. But selling the World Cup off to investors who will seek to extract every dollar possible from the tournament is the biggest risk to the health of the game that we’ve ever seen. 

The best of Sports Illustrated

The Cardinals turned heads by selecting Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 pick in the draft. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

• Albert Breer:Five Biggest Cardinals Training Camp Takeaways: Jeremiyah Love Leads Talented Backfield
• Gilberto Manzano:Super Bowl LXI Road Map: Seahawks Flying Under the Radar Again
• Pat Forde:Tony Petitti’s Big Ten Keeps Winning. Now His 24-Team Playoff Push Might Be Too.
• Kevin Sweeney:Revised Protect College Sports Act Puts Pressure on Big Ten and SEC
• Conor Orr: What Vita Vea’s Trade Request and Jalen Carter’s Extension Say About the DT Market
• Pat Forde:Notre Dame Adds Jersey Patches: Why It’s a Vital Next Step in College Sports
• Dan Falkenheim:The Most Clutch Players in the WNBA This Season
• Gilberto Manzano:What We Learned at Rams Training Camp: The NFL’s MVP Looks Better Than Ever

The top five…

… things I saw last night: 
5. The unbelievable story of a rugby trophy. Sporting Club Leucate won the championship in France’s fourth tier, then celebrated on a boat. One player threw the trophy into the water and the team watched helplessly as it sank to the floor of the Mediterranean. But wait! Miraculously, the trophy drifted toward the beach and was recovered!
4. PGA Tour player Michael Kim’s hilarious story about Si Woo Kim’s unexpected international detour when they tried to get dinner together. 
3. A great play by Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. all the way over by the right field line. 
2. This pair of slick assists by Lynx rookie Olivia Miles. 
1. Reds center fielder Dane Myers’s outrageous catch for the final out of the game. I don’t think it was technically a home run robbery, but he saved at least one run in a 2–0 game.